If asked the question “What would you like to have on Facebook?”, what would you answer? To get a more definitive response, Social Media Today posted on their SMT Facebook community to gain a couple of suggestions that would theoretically make Facebook “better”. The range of answers is interesting, to say the least, with some having been repeated suggestions over time. On the other hand, some answers lead to meritable insights and have, to some degree, been tested by the platform. Below are some of the top suggestions.

1. Dislike Button

Hard to believe that this is the top-rated suggestion. Wow, people really must be naturally divisive. On a more qualitative note, a dislike button does signal a user’s immediate disapproval, which could help Facebook’s algorithm in improving user experience by better knowing what users WOULDN’T want to see. However, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pretty clear on his stance on this time and time again, noting that the biggest potential concern would be feeding the algorithm with broader impressions outside of the full context.

2. Improved Customer Support 

This one is more expected. Meta’s customer support has often been criticized due to the lack of adequate responses and the apparent absence of any actual support for customers. While it often does guide users to its online help forums, some concerns may not be entirely solved through self-help alone. At least Meta is well-aware of this and is actively moving towards a viable solution. It’s not easy if you have 3 billion customers, which is totally understandable.

3. Expanded Keyword Blocking

Users apparently wanted some keyword blocking tools on Facebook, essentially spilling over to Meta’s other apps in the process. While there is some form of keyword blocking available, they don’t totally remove blocked words from view. It’s a great control tool to have which lets users filter content that they wouldn’t want to come across. Meta has tested several iterations of the option in the past, so it’s technically possible, albeit requiring a bit more refinement and tweaking.

4. Chronological Feed

The oldest school of Facebook’s Feed format. People just loved the old algorithm-free Feeds, which most believe would actually make all social platforms much better places. Contrary to their beliefs, Meta notes that user experience was actually worse without algorithm-defined feeds, though the truth may be further from itself than they’d like us to believe. Either way, this is unlikely to happen as algorithms currently dictate a platform’s profitability.

5. Audio Responses

Meta ran initial tests with this option in India back in 2018. In fact, Meta has had several tests and initiatives about this feature, though none made it to the main app. It’s a quirky option to have on the user’s side, but for the implementing party (Meta et.al.) it’d be a more challenging scenario. As it stands, current moderation tools cannot detect comments in spoken-word, which likely presents a gap when it comes to potential content violations. This requires further testing and cross-referencing.

6. Page Lists

Simplifying, people would like the ability to categorize certain pages and profiles into their own, dedicated News Feeds. Meta actually tried both options, launching separate tests in 2016 and 2017 respectively, though both were short-lived. Maybe, people would want the ability to create their own custom Lists, and not ones that are pre-made or templated.

The Wrap

There are a lot more suggestions, but we might not see the end of it if we tackle all of them now. Either way, the main thing to note here is that there are gaps with Facebook’s current setup, and though it’s not the worst format, there’s plenty of room for improvement. We’re pretty sure Facebook (and Meta) is aware of this, just that they can’t focus on all things and all fonts at once, at least not in the same level of confidence as they would with priority projects; it would simply be too tedious and too resource-intensive.

What’s important to note here is that people have insight, meaning that there’s still something Facebook can do about its user experience. As long as people are still interested in ‘Seeing something on Facebook’, then they still have a chance of winning back their beloved (younger) audience, once again propelling the platform to the premiere spot.

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Sources

https://bit.ly/3uhsds1