Facebook Tweaks News Feed to Prioritise Friends, Relevant Links

Facebook is tweaking its News Feed to help its over 2.3 billion users see friends they want to hear from most and links which are most worthwhile right higher up on its platform.

Facebook conducted surveys to get more context about the posts people want to see and who they want to see them from.

"We are announcing two ranking updates based on surveys we've conducted: one prioritises the friends someone might want to hear from most and the other prioritises the links a person might consider most worthwhile," the social media giant said in a blog post late Thursday.

Facebook would look at the patterns, some of which include being tagged in the same photos, continuously reacting and commenting on the same posts and checking-in at the same places -- and then use these patterns to inform its algorithms.

"This direct feedback helps us better predict which friends people may want to hear from most," said Ramya Sethuraman, Product Manager.

This does not mean News Feed will be limited to posts from only certain people and it also does not mean people will necessarily see more friend content.

"Rather, you will likely see posts from those you have close relationships with higher up in your News Feed," said Facebook.

Facebook said its prediction models are continuously updated based on the interactions people have with their friends on Facebook.

To show relevant posts, a Facebook survey asked people what posts they thought were worth their time.

Based on these surveys, Facebook is updating News Feed to show people links they will find worthwhile.

"We then combine these factors with information we have about the post, including the type of post, who it's from and the engagement it's received, to more accurately predict whether people are likely to find a link valuable," said the company.

According to media reports, the change might hurt Facebook Pages that share clickbait and preference those sharing content that makes people feel satisfied afterwards.

Facebook, however, said the changes aren't meant to show more or less from Pages or friends.

"Rather, the Page links that are surfaced to people will be ones they find worth their time... and the friend posts will be from friends people want to hear from most," it explained.