ISLAMABAD – Social Media giant Facebook is launching a new interstitialfeature copying Instagram, media reports have revealed.
Facebook is copying Instagram while simultaneously invading its acquisitionwith branding and links back to the mothership.
According to TechCrunch, Facebook testing a feature called Popular Photos,which affixes an endless scroll of algorithmically selected pics fromfriends beneath the full-screen view of a photo opened from the News Feed.The result is an experience that feels like the Instagram feed, but insideof Facebook.
Popular Photos could offer users a more relaxing, lean-back browsingexperience that omits links you have to click through, status updates youhave to read, and other content types that bog down the News Feed. Instead,users can just passively watch the pretty pictures go by.
Facebook’s text and link-heavy feed looks increasingly stodgy andexhausting compared to visual communication-based social networks likeInstagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.
Users have to do the work of digging into the meaning of News Feed eachpost rather than being instantly entertained. That experience doesn’t fitas well into short browsing sessions throughout the day, or when users arealready drained from work, school, or family.
Facebook used to have a dedicated Photos bookmark on desktop that would letyou just browse that content type, but at some point it disappeared.
A Facebook spokesperson confirms that Facebook was running a small test ofPopular Photos in October when we spotted it.