Facebook guys are testing a new update to its "News Feed" feature, which shows that the news hub can now be categorized under popular heads like World News and Sports.
This test run became public news once the new look of New Feed surfaced on Twitter in the form of images posted by marketing consultant Tom Critchlow. His Android phones reflected the news sections which will now enable the users to easily sort their news content.
Although this update is not entirely new and has been spotted on iOS devices, this is the first time Android machines have reflected this big a change. While the move looks suspiciously like a way to steal traffic from Twitter and Google News as that's where people mostly flock to, Facebook claims it is looking to upgrade the app.
"People have told [us] they'd like options to see more stories on Facebook around specific topics they're interested in. So we have been testing a few feeds for people to view more and different stories from people and Pages based on topic areas," says Facebook.
The little sections that appear at the bottom of the screen can be accessed by tapping or swiping from left to right. There's also a tool that helps you edit these categories. For instance, if you weren't into Sports, you have the option to remove and replace it with things of your interest like Food or Music.
Critchlow who saw this Facebook update in his Moto X device noted yet another change. Interestingly, the news feed also throws up random strangers as a recommendation to add as friends. This, he feels, is a big departure from standard Facebook norms as "there's no 'two friends in common' label or anything like that." "Perhaps there's some intelligence behind the scenes but nothing immediately obvious," he added.
Nonetheless, this is still a big change Facebook has under a test run, especially for Android users. But there's no news of when the social network leader plans to officially launch it for the millions of Facebookers, especially those who need to get their dose of news every single day.
