Introducing New Facebook Local Tab, Messenger Communities, AI Integrations and More

Today at our Facebook IRL event in Austin, we shared exciting new developments for the future of Facebook and Messenger.

We’re adding features that help young adults – and all Facebook users – explore their interests and connect with the world beyond their close friends. Whatever you’re into, there are people on Facebook who can help you find and do more of it. We want to make it easy for you to discover the content and people you care about, because that’s exactly the kind of social discovery that Facebook is built for.

With Messenger, we’ve made it easier for you to connect privately with the people in your life, whether it’s to share a Reel you saw on Facebook, message with Marketplace sellers, react to the Story your friend shared or to interact in one of the many other ways Messenger enables every day.  Messenger continues to lead the industry in utility and expression. Every month, more Americans report turning to Messenger for personal communication than any other mobile messaging app. We take this responsibility seriously and are adding features that spark fun and meaningful conversations while ensuring communication on Messenger is private, safe, reliable and expressive.

We’re excited to share all the work we’ve been doing to improve your Facebook and Messenger experiences.

Get to Know What’s Local

We know people use Facebook to connect with their local communities, so we’re investing in ways to make that even easier. We’re testing an experience that pulls together the best local content from across Facebook – from places like Marketplace, Groups and Events – into a single tab called Local. Whether it’s nearby activities, local groups offering free stuff or recommendations about neighborhood hot spots, you’ll find it all in the new Local tab. Local is currently testing in Austin, New York City, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco and Phoenix.

We are also introducing a Weekly and Weekend Digest for Events, a compilation of upcoming event recommendations in your area based on your interests, delivered each week via a notification on Facebook.

And we’ve added a new, swipeable section in Feed that surfaces the best content across Facebook. So let’s say you move into a new neighborhood. In this new section, we can surface  local events, interesting groups, people, businesses, stuff for sale – to help you connect with more people and discover info to help you take the next step with your new community.

Explore and Take the Next Step

Beyond a Local tab to connect you to your local community, we’re also testing an Explore tab, where you can find a variety of content tailored to your interests. Explore is designed to show you content that doesn’t just entertain, but helps you dive deeper into your interests, get inspired by real people and expert communities and take the next step. It’s unique to each person’s interests, and we use a wide variety of signals to power our algorithm so that your content will reflect the things you’re into. Whether you’re seeking time management hacks, tips for traveling abroad for the first time, DIY tricks for repurposing furniture or running groups for marathon training, the Explore tab will have even more of what you’re looking for.

A Single Seamless Video Tab

We want to make it easier for people to find Reels and other videos they love on Facebook. That’s why, in the coming weeks, we’re introducing an updated, full-screen Video tab that gives Reels a more prominent home on Facebook.

This will give you a full-screen video player that allows you to seamlessly watch the best short-form, long-form and live videos in a single experience, powered by our turbo-charged recommendations technology.

Young adults on Facebook spend almost 60% of their time on the app watching videos, and more than half of young adults watch Reels daily – so we want to make sure we’re creating a video experience that helps them get valuable tips, advice and recommendations.

SMS, Email and Instagram Invites for Events

We recently launched a new feature that allows you to invite your Instagram followers to events you’ve created on Facebook. You can also send SMS and email invites to guests, meaning anyone can view and RSVP to an event, whether they are on Facebook or not.

Find the Group and Information You’re Looking For

Almost 1.8 billion people use Facebook Groups every month, turning to them when they want to learn something new or get great advice. There are currently 25 million monthly active public groups, and this number is growing.

We’ve started testing a customizable Group AI to help members of groups find answers to questions, especially questions that have previously been asked. When a group admin decides to enable this feature, members can open a chat with the group’s AI, which can answer questions and link to relevant Groups posts. This test just started rolling out in the US and Canada to a small number of groups.

Matchmaker for Facebook Dating

Facebook Dating uses your Facebook network and interests to help you find romantic connections based on what you like. Facebook Dating conversations are increasing 24% year over year among young adults in the US and Canada. Today we’re launching Matchmaker, a new feature on Facebook Dating that lets you invite up to five friends to swipe for potential matches on your behalf. With Matchmaker, you can enlist your friends to help make dating easier and more fun.

AI Upgrades to Help Answer Your Questions

We’re also integrating Meta AI to enhance creativity and help you share more content with your friends, family, and people who share your interests. For example, we recently launched Imagine Yourself, which you’ll now be able to access in your Feed and Stories composers and on your Profile page. And earlier this year, we introduced AI Comment Summaries from public Groups, Pages and Creators to make it easier for you to catch up on conversations.

Notes Updates and Memories on Messenger

Earlier this year, we introduced Notes in Messenger, a quick way for you and your friends to share how you’re feeling or what you’re up to. We’re excited to announce that we’re adding new functionalities like music and mentions to help you express yourself and spark conversations, and we’re starting to test this Notes format on Facebook too.

We’re also starting to roll out Memories, an easy way to relive and share moments you’ve previously shared on Messenger. Memories on Messenger resurfaces past photos from your chats to view and share with your community.

Create Communities in Messenger

Today, we’re also announcing Messenger Communities, a new way for small- to medium-sized communities to connect over shared interests. You can create multiple topic-based chats to organize and facilitate different conversations within a larger Messenger Community, and simple, built-in tools will make it easy to manage and moderate your community – without needing to create a Facebook Group. It’s easy to grow your community by inviting your Facebook friends, or by using your community’s shareable QR code.

Since we started testing Messenger Communities, we’ve seen college students use them to forge new connections and share information about important community topics, like student club recruitment, campus events and class schedules.

Enhancing our Support for Creators

In addition to these new features, earlier this week we announced a new monetization program that expands opportunities for creators to earn from more content formats. We also plan to test expanding monetization options to Stories in the coming months.

We’re always looking for new ways to bring you closer to the people and things you care about through Facebook, and we hope these new features help you create stronger bonds with your communities.

The post Introducing New Facebook Local Tab, Messenger Communities, AI Integrations and More appeared first on Meta.