Meta is rolling out major changes to Facebook's video experience that blur the lines with TikTok. The company upgraded its recommendation engine to surface fresher content and added "friend bubbles" that show when your contacts like reels - part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's mission to make Facebook relevant again. With video watch time already up 20% year-over-year, these updates signal Meta's all-in bet on short-form content.
Meta just made Facebook look a lot more like TikTok. The company rolled out a suite of updates to its Reels experience that fundamentally changes how users discover and interact with short-form video content on the platform.
The centerpiece is an overhauled recommendation engine that learns user preferences faster and surfaces more timely content. Facebook now shows 50% more reels from creators that were published the same day you're watching, according to Meta's announcement. It's a stark departure from Facebook's traditionally sticky algorithm that kept users scrolling through older content.
But the most telling change is "friend bubbles" - small indicators in the bottom left of videos that show when your friends have liked a reel. Tap the bubble and you can instantly start a private chat about the video. "Seeing likes from your friends has always been core to the Facebook experience, and we are continuing to build features – like bubbles – that bring us back to our roots," Meta said in its announcement.
The timing isn't coincidental. CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared in January that he was "excited this year to get back to some OG Facebook," signaling a return to the platform's social networking DNA while embracing the short-form video format that's dominated by TikTok.
The strategy appears to be working. Meta's latest earnings report revealed that improved ranking systems have already boosted video watch time on Facebook by more than 20% year-over-year. That's a massive engagement jump for a platform many considered past its prime.
These changes build on Meta's June announcement that all Facebook videos would become Reels and that length restrictions would be dropped entirely. The company essentially admitted that the future of Facebook is vertical video - the format TikTok popularized and Instagram Reels adopted.
