Meta is rolling out a significant redesign for its flagship Facebook app, shifting focus back to core social connections, enhancing visual content, and elevating its popular Marketplace. This strategic overhaul, announced amidst reports of reduced metaverse investments, aims to revitalize user engagement, particularly among younger demographics like Gen Z, and streamline the overall app experience.
The changes come as Meta reportedly considers sizable cuts to its metaverse efforts, which, before the AI boom, were positioned as the company's next big bet in social networking. Meanwhile, Facebook continues to reach billions of users globally, even if its growth remains flat in key markets such as the U.S.
Marketplace Takes Center Stage
A key highlight of the redesign is the elevated prominence of Facebook Marketplace. As Facebook's user base ages, Meta has been actively seeking to engage younger demographics. Despite previous attempts to reboot Facebook for college students and recent efforts to give it a Gen Z makeover, it's Marketplace that has truly resonated with younger users.
According to a 2025 eMarketer report, more than half of Gen Z users in the U.S. utilize the company's online marketplace. Meta itself confirmed this trend last month, noting that Marketplace is used by one out of four young adult daily active users in the U.S. and Canada.
Despite this significant traction, Marketplace has historically been "buried" within the "More" menu under user profiles. The new update will integrate Marketplace directly into the app's bottom navigation bar, placing it alongside other social and creator-focused features like Reels and Friends.
Re-centering Friends and Visuals
The redesign signals a deliberate move to re-center Facebook around its original purpose: connecting friends. Similar to how Instagram began testing a Reels-first UI, Facebook is now prioritizing friends as a core part of the experience. The Profile tab will remain in the navigation bar, and users will retain the ability to customize their experience.
Visual content is also getting a significant upgrade. Users will soon be able to double-tap photos in their Feed to 'like' them, mirroring Instagram's intuitive interaction. These photos will be arranged in a standardized grid, and clicking them will enable full-screen viewing. Search functionality is also evolving to include a more immersive grid layout for all content types, with a new full-screen viewer being tested to explore photo and video results without losing one's place.
Streamlined Creation and Interaction
Creating content on Facebook is set to become easier and more intuitive. The redesign makes tools for adding music or tagging friends more visible when composing Stories and regular posts, while simultaneously eliminating other distractions. Audience and cross-posting settings will also be more prominently displayed.
Commenting across Feed, Groups, and Reels is receiving a suite of enhancements, including streamlined replies, more visible badges, and new pinning tools. Meta states these changes will foster easier-to-follow conversations and provide creators and admins with expanded monitoring controls. Additionally, users will gain the ability to anonymously flag irrelevant comments or disruptive users. To further personalize the user experience, individuals will be able to provide feedback on why they dislike a particular post or Reel in their Feed.
Revamped Profiles and User Control
In a bid to regain its reputation as a primary platform for connecting friends—a role it was once best known for before prioritizing other content types and copying or acquiring numerous other social apps—Facebook is rolling out updated user profiles.
These revamped profiles will allow individuals to share more detailed information about their interests, hobbies, and travel plans, such as favorite TV shows, music they're streaming, or travel destinations. While Facebook has historically used such data for targeted advertising, the new functionality promises to connect users with friends who share similar interests or can offer advice on travel. Crucially, users will now have the option to decide whether profile updates, like changing a profile picture or background photo—a feature many users found annoying—are shared to their Feed. Meta hopes this decision will increase adoption by addressing a long-standing user annoyance.
These new features are scheduled to roll out globally over the coming weeks. Some of the updates, including the new navigation, search and comments enhancements, double-tap to like functionality, and the Feed and Stories composer redesign, will initially be exclusive to the mobile app.
