Facebook revamps News Feed, DM-like comments & circles abound

Facebook has announced a minor redesign of its News Feed that tackles the comment section, readability and those darn square profile pictures.

Over the coming weeks, the company will be rolling out a few updates so that the Feed is more “conversational”.

The biggest of these is a revamped comments section that replaces the trusty block comments with bubbles that resemble the DM look Apple made popular with iMessage.

This section — and the rest of the Feed — will be pulling a Twitter and replacing the square images with sleeker circles. Facebook says that these combined updates make it “easier to see which comments are direct replies to another person”.

It is likely that Facebook is seeking more engagement on its platform, and evoking the more comfortable and informal feel of private conversations could invite more people to comment. Whether that will happen depends on if the feature is as easily navigable as the company says.

The way links are displayed on the News Feed will also be changing, with the familiar box links discarded for a grey strip beneath the image. The link destination will be placed over the headline rather than under it so as to make it more noticeable.

The most significant change may just be the removal of the familiar blue accents for a clean white interface starkly resembling Instagram. The changes — along with a recent update to Instagram’s comment section — signals a move to make the apps recognisably one brand.

The update is currently rolling out globally.