Facebook app now wants to be more like Instagram, testing 'Popular photos' feed

Facebook's 'Popular Photos' option could be in works. According to reports, Facebook is testing a new change in the news feed. Facebook news feed wants to show you more photos in a separate feed called 'Popular Photos.'

It's unclear at the moment if Facebook news feed will be segregated in the future so that you can filter what type of posts you want to see in the news feed because yes, Facebook's news feed can be extremely crowded at times, courtesy of texts, links, ads and comments. But for now, it seems like Facebook plans to give special treatment to only photos.

Over the last few months, video content sees more engagement than any other type of post. One of the main reasons, videos have far more visibility in the news feed than other types of posts, especially photos.

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That's probably why a significant number of users are turning to Instagram these days, to see photos shared by their friends. To fix this problem, Facebook might be looking to keep more users engaged with its platform by showing more photos in a self-contained feed.

Photo: TechCrunch

This test was first spotted by TechCrunch. As part of the test, a separate 'Popular Photos' feed in Facebook Newsfeed has gone live for select users. Since the test is not over yet, we don't know whether it will be expanded to more Facebook users.

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How Facebook's popular photos feed works

All you need to do is tap a photo in your Facebook news feed. Tapping a photo will display additional photos below. If this sounds similar to you, that's because Facebook has a standalone video feed that works in a similar fashion. Tapping on one popular video will show you a series of other popular videos below it.

Popular Photos feed expected to reduce Facebook news feed clutter to a significant extent. More details are awaited as to why is Facebook trying to implement this feature and pose internal competition to Instagram. Facebook did not comment.