After years of reshaping Facebook’s main feed into a “discovery engine“—prioritizing content from pages, groups, and accounts users don’t follow—Meta is taking steps to bring back more personal interactions. The company is introducing a revamped “Friends” section, designed to display only content related to a user’s actual Facebook friends.
A Return to Facebook’s Roots
The updated Friends tab, which previously focused only on friend requests, will now feature:
- Posts from friends (Feed and Stories)
- Reels shared by friends
- Birthday reminders
- Friend requests & suggestions
This shift is part of Meta’s broader effort to restore the social essence of Facebook, which many users feel has been lost due to the platform’s algorithmic push toward recommended content—an approach adopted to compete with TikTok.
While Meta is promoting this as a fresh update, it’s not the first time it has introduced a dedicated friends-only feed. In 2022, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a similar feature that displayed posts from friends in reverse chronological order, though it was somewhat hidden in the app’s navigation.
It’s unclear which other “OG” Facebook features Meta plans to revive, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg has hinted at bringing back beloved, nostalgic experiences that no longer exist on today’s internet.
“I think there’s a big opportunity to rebuild some of the joyful experiences that were once core to Facebook but have faded over time,” Zuckerberg said in a recent podcast discussing the changes.
With features like the once-iconic “poke” briefly making a comeback last year, users may soon see even more throwback elements reintroduced to the 21-year-old platform.
