Facebook announces new perk users will love

Facebook had 3.068 billion monthly active users in the last quarter of 2024 and is the third most-visited site globally.

Now, imagine being behind all the creative work that needs to keep the interest of, and continue to attract, those billions of people to its 20-year-old platform.

To say this is quite a task would be an understatement.

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Did you know that adults aged 18-24 are spending only 22 minutes per day on Facebook (META) ? They must be spending more time than that on the Internet daily, right? The data therefore suggests younger users are increasingly favoring other platforms, writes Social Shepard.

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has often said the only way to fight the competition is to constantly innovate and create new applications, working toward a family of apps.

Remember when in 2009 Facebook introduced the famous ‘Like’ button? Not only was it a huge success, but it also served as a “creative catalyst, a dopamine delivery system, and an emotional battering ram,” writes the Associated Press.

Then Facebook Live emerged, enabling users to create and view live-stream videos.
Video continues to be the most engaged-in type of content on social media platforms, and Facebook continues to upgrade its video features, pleasing users.

Reels have taken social media by storm

In 2012 Facebook made a major move by acquiring Instagram for $1 billion. While many looked at the acquisition with skepticism, it turned out to be a great investment.

Instagram’s reels dominate screen time, making up 35% of total Instagram usage in 2024. What’s more, Instagram Reels reach 726.8 million users, covering 55.1% of the platform’s ad audience, according to data from Cropink.

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Reels represented an alternative to TikTok and other micro-video sharing services. They started as 15-second videos, but have expanded to 90 seconds. They offer users high-end video editing tools and the ability to easily share their video with the world, without a need for an expensive computer, writes Sprout Social.

For many brands, reels make a great tool for reaching their fans and customers, as people love watching entertaining videos from brands they like.

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As a type of short-form content, it enables the messenger to send a message in seconds. 

The average attention span of humans has dropped significantly over the years, from 150 seconds in 2004 to 47 seconds in recent years, according to a study by the University of California, Irvine.

That’s perhaps one of the reasons reels have taken social media by storm.

Facebook says now all videos will be reels

Keeping up with the trend, Meta on June 17 revealed that all videos on Facebook will be shared as reels, removing the need to choose between uploading a video or reel.

What’s more, reels on Facebook will not have any length or format restrictions.

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Facebook is renaming the “Video” tab to the “Reels” tab, but this update won’t change video recommendations, which are personalized based on users’ interests.

“Previously, you’d upload a video to Feed or post a reel using different creative flows and tools for each format. Now, we’re bringing these experiences together with a simplified publishing flow that gives you access to even more creative tools,” wrote Meta.

Users will still be able to control who sees their reels and will retain access to the same audience settings and controls. This means reels can be shared only with users’ friends or a select group of people, and there’s an option for public sharing as well.

Meta added that it will gradually roll out these changes globally to profiles and Pages over the coming months.

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