Facebook Experiments with Local Communities Explore Function

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key takeaways

  • Facebook is testing a new tab to help users explore events and communities in their area.
  • A weekly digest will offer users events based on their location and interests.
  • The feature is currently being tested in 10 US cities.

On Oct. 4, Meta introduced a new Facebook tab to improve the user experience of finding local events and communities.

A “Local” tab will merge content from places like the resale platform Marketplace, Groups, and Events, serving as a single place to look for nearby activities, places, or local groups. In addition, Meta introduced a Weekly and Weekend Digest for Events, which will be picked based on the user’s interests and location and delivered via a notification in the app.

Meta tests the tab in 10 US cities, including Austin, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.

Facebook also plans to add an “Explore” tab, seemingly familiar to the one already existing on Instagram. According to the blog post, it will help users “dive deeper into your interests, get inspired by real people and expert communities.”

Facebook “Local” tab | source: Meta Newsroom

Other updates are a new full-screen “Video” tab, pulling all videos together into one place, and Group AI. The latter will help members of Facebook groups find answers to questions based on the group content.

Facebook “Video” tab | source: Meta Newsroom

Meta is actively training its AI model on public data. Earlier this fall, the company acknowledged that it trains its AI on the public data of every adult user in Australia without offering an opportunity to opt-out. The UK users are also being trained on, however, with an opt-out option, though complex to perform.