Facebook About to Come Up With a Major Design Change. Know All About It

Facebook debuted a makeover for its main app on Tuesday and said the company is making a major shift in how it’s run.

Speaking at Facebook’s annual F8 developer’s conference on Tuesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the new design would make it easier for the social network’s more than 2.2 billion users to find other people with common interests by connecting through its group’s features.

The new design showcases Facebook’s messaging app, online marketplace, and video-on-demand site while giving greater prominence to the popular photo-driven Stories feature. The new design is meant to be simpler, more streamlined, and seemingly easier to navigate. “It’s not even blue,” Zuckerberg joked during his speech, referring to the predominance of white in the new design.

It’s unclear if a new design and approach to privacy will usher in real change for the beleaguered company, which reaches more than 2 billion people around the world, or if it’s just a new coat of paint. It could take some time to see if the changes make a noticeable difference.

The company announced a new dating option on Tuesday called “secret crush,” which will let users create a private list of friends they’re interested in dating. If two friends both put each other on their secret list, Facebook will alert them.

So If someone adds you to their Secret Crush list, Facebook will send you a notification saying “A friend added you as a secret crush.” If you then pick the same person for your list, Facebook will match you together and reveal your names.

The feature will be available only in countries where Facebook has rolled out its Dating service, including Colombia, Canada, Thailand, Argentina, and Mexico, as well as 14 new countries in Asia and South America,  introduced today.

Facebook will also introduce a desktop version of Messenger for Mac and Windows and launch a feature called “Product Catalogue” for WhatsApp Business. The desktop app will be available this fall.

Facebook has had a turbulent past year with a seemingly never-ending string of scandals touching on data privacy, security, election meddling, misinformation and hate speech. It has spent large amounts of money and energy trying to address the issues and repair its reputation.