Facebook is rolling out significant updates aimed at stemming user migration to rival platforms such as TikTok—updates that eerily resemble a TikTok clone. Tom Alison, head of Facebook, announced today that the company will start testing a “reimagined experience” later this year, placing a selected group of users into a full‑screen video feed as soon as they launch the app.
Meta has not disclosed details of the experimental interface, noting only that the trial will launch first in markets where video consumption is high, with a possible U.S. rollout slated for next year. The initiative stems from Facebook’s observation that “video is where conversations are happening, communities are forming, and even commerce is beginning to take place”—a trend that puts its legacy social platform at risk of being left behind. Although Meta does not publish platform‑specific user numbers, the company reported a collective loss of 20 million users in Q1 2026.
Facebook continues to rank as the leading social network worldwide, with YouTube a close second and TikTok rapidly closing the gap—TikTok reached one billion monthly active users just three years after its launch, a growth pace far outstripping Facebook’s. Meta introduced Reels on Instagram in 2020 to counter TikTok’s rise, and it is now pursuing a comparable strategy for Facebook. This shift follows Alison’s 2022 remark to The Verge that he viewed TikTok as chasing Facebook, not the reverse.
Over time, Facebook has evolved into a mixed bag of social and commerce offerings, and it is now borrowing features from rival platforms to enhance the user experience. Today the company unveiled Seller, a standalone app modeled after Craigslist that lets Marketplace sellers monitor performance, edit listings, and communicate with buyers. Earlier this year Facebook also released the Forum app, which creates a dedicated hub for interacting with Facebook Groups—akin to the subreddit experience on Reddit.
Facebook is also revising its verification badge system. While the Meta Verified subscription remains available at $11.99 per month, the platform now provides a free verified badge attainable through a straightforward selfie verification process, intended to signal that an account belongs to a genuine individual.
