Facebook started to roll out its redesigned website to desktop users across the globe from March 2020. In the early days, Facebook users were given the option to opt-in to the new design (or ignore it entirely). However, that’s no longer the case. From next month, Facebook will impose its new design on all 2.7billion social network account holders worldwide. If you’re not keen on the new design, that’s not great news.
The redesign, which was announced during Facebook’s annual developer conference F8 last year, represents a shift away the long-standing News Feed to focus on events and groups. Facebook wanted to centre the social network on personal connections, rather than news headlines, games, polls, and photo albums.
The redesign was previously exclusive to the Facebook mobile app, but is now available across smartphones, tablets, laptop and desktop PCs.
“Starting today, the majority of people on Facebook will have access to the new desktop design,” a Facebook spokesperson announced earlier this year, “People can opt-in to try out the new design before it becomes default later this year.” And now that time has come.
A new pop-up has started to appear across the social network which confirms that “Classic Facebook is going away soon”. As well as preparing users for the shift to the new look, the pop-up also explains the benefits of the new site.
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According to Facebook, the advantages of the new-look Facebook include a “clean look” that should make things easier to find on the social network. Not only that, but text is larger in the new design to make it more legible.
Unlike the previous design, Facebook’s new look supports dark mode too. Dark mode is designed to switch the bright white colours typically found in the user interface with darker greys and deep blacks in order to ease your eyes when using Facebook late at night. Not only that, but if you’re using a device with an OLED display to browse Facebook, you could benefit from a battery life boost too.
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Facebook claims its new site will load faster, which could be handy if your home Wi-Fi connection isn’t handling the new work from home regime too well.
The new design also places Facebook Stories more prominently above the ‘Update Status’ box at the top of the homepage. Located just above the ‘Stories’ box is a redesigned menu featuring several tabs previously found in the left-hand corner of the screen, like Events and Marketplace.
If you haven’t already tried the new look, you can take a look by heading to Facebook and logging into your account. Navigate to the Settings menu, then click See New Facebook. If you don’t like what you see, there is a Switch to Classic Facebook button available… but just be aware that it will vanish in a few days.