Facebook App Gets Major White Update, and Users Have Thoughts

Facebook has made some monumental changes to its mobile app design on Tuesday, and it was not a [...]

Facebook has made some monumental changes to its mobile app design on Tuesday, and it was not a popular rollout among users.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the app update at the company's F8 Developer Conference on Tuesday, according to a report by CNBC. It is the biggest overhaul of the social media site's mobile look in five years, and many users did not care for it. Ironically, they flooded Twitter with screenshots and complains about the new look.

"Oh [Facebook], why must you consistently insult your users' intelligence by adding the [world's] ugliest header to the top of your app in a means to remind us that we did indeed click the Facebook app?" one person tweeted.

"That's a lot of prime screen real estate being taken up by an unnecessarily large logo to remind me that I'm in the Facebook app," echoed another.

"The #Facebook app has changed and now has the 'What's on your mind?' box at the very top, in the position that the search used to be," a third person noted. "Cue a shedload of statuses of people finally revealing to the world who they are cyber-stalking daily."

Zuckerberg identified this new version of the Facebook mobile app as "FB5," the fifth "major version" of the interface. He reportedly hopes it would place a new emphasis on messaging and privacy.

"It has a much bigger focus on communities and making communities as central as friends," Zuckerberg said at the event.

He also drew attention to what he and his developers hope is a more simple design. It will undoubtedly take some getting used to, but eventually Zuckerberg hopes users will agree that it works better.

"The app isn't even blue anymore," he said with a laugh. In future updates, the Facebook icon will reportedly modernized as well.

The redesign places a huge emphasis on groups — a growing trend within Facebook. Zuckerberg promised that this would coincide with a big effort to crack down on groups known for spreading misinformation. He acknowledged the recent criticisms of Facebook for helping disseminate "fake news" and extremist doctrine, and said that the new group-centric interface will not encourage those pages anymore.

"I get that a lot of people aren't sure that we're serious about this," the CEO said. He also made several references to Facebook's newest efforts towards privacy. He reportedly even referenced recent scandals that have hurt the company, such as the Cambridge Analytica case that landed Zuckerberg in front of congress.

The new version of the Facebook app went live in the U.S. on Tuesday, and is expected to launch worldwide in the weeks to come. Corresponding updates will reach the desktop version of the site later this year.

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