If you’ve recently noticed that your Facebook news feed seems to be missing or has drastically changed, you’re not alone. Facebook has made some significant changes to how the news feed works, which has left many users confused about where their news feed has gone and how to find it again.
What happened to the Facebook news feed?
The Facebook news feed used to be the primary place where you would see posts, photos, videos, and updates from your friends, family, Groups, and Pages that you follow. It was a chronological list of the latest content posted by those connections.
However, over the years, Facebook has updated the algorithm that determines what content appears in your news feed. The goal was to show users the posts that may be most relevant to them, rather than simply the most recent posts. This meant that the order of posts was no longer chronological. Facebook wanted to surface content you were more likely to engage with or find interesting at the top of your feed.
More recently, Facebook introduced even more drastic changes. The news feed is no longer the main landing page when you open the Facebook app on mobile. Instead, the main tabs are now Home, Reels, Messages, Notifications, Search, Gaming, Menu. Many users are left wondering “Where did my news feed go?” when the familiar news feed is no longer front and center.
The Home tab has replaced the news feed
The Facebook news feed still exists, it has just been renamed and moved. What used to be called the news feed is now called Home. When you tap on Home, you’ll see posts, photos, videos, ads, and updates – the same content that used to populate your news feed.
So in summary, the Facebook news feed has not disappeared entirely. It has just been relegated to the Home tab rather than being the main page you see when you open the app.
Why did Facebook make this change?
Facebook decided to move the news feed off the opening screen for a couple key reasons:
- To promote Reels – Reels is Facebook’s TikTok competitor for short form videos. Putting Reels front and center gives it prime real estate in the app.
- To highlight other services – Similarly, giving tabs like Messenger, Watch, Gaming, etc more focus draws attention to Facebook’s other offerings beyond the basic news feed.
- Less news feed reliance – Facebook likely wants to reduce reliance on the news feed as the sole gateway to the app and diversify the ways that users interact and discover content.
While these changes may seem jarring to those used to opening straight into their news feeds, Facebook feels focusing the app on discovery of new content and services will create more engagement in the long run.
How to find your Facebook news feed now
If you’re wondering where you can go to access your Facebook news feed going forward, here are the steps:
- Open the Facebook app on your mobile device
- Tap on the Home tab at the bottom (it will be the first tab)
- Scroll through the Home page to see recent posts from friends, Pages, Groups etc – this is your news feed
It takes an extra tap now to view your latest news feed content, but it still exists in the app – it’s just found in the Home tab rather than being the default opening page.
Using Facebook on desktop
On the desktop version of Facebook, the news feed works similarly to how it always has. When you open Facebook on your computer and log in, your news feed of posts will be visible right away on the homepage. There is no need to click into a separate Home tab.
So on desktop, you can access your latest news feed without any changed steps compared to the old Facebook interface. It’s only on mobile that an extra tap is now required to see your news feed content.
How to customize your Facebook news feed
If you’re not happy with the content you’re seeing in your news feed now under the Home tab, there are a few ways you can customize it:
Prioritize who you see first
You can choose to always see posts from certain friends and Pages at the top of your feed under “Prioritize who to see first”:
- Go to the Home tab
- Tap the three dot menu icon in the top right
- Select “Settings & Privacy”
- Tap “News Feed Preferences”
- Tap “Prioritize who to see first”
- Select the friends and Pages you want to always appear first
Relevance vs Recent posts
You can change your feed to show recent posts in chronological order rather than algorithmically ranked “Relevant” posts:
- Go to the Home tab
- Tap the three dot menu icon in the top right
- Select “Settings & Privacy”
- Tap “News Feed Preferences”
- Tap “Relevant” posts and switch it to “Recent” posts instead
Use lists
You can create lists of friends and Pages you want to group together. Then you can view each list separately as its own feed:
- Tap the three line menu icon in the top right on Home
- Select “Lists”
- Tap “+ Create new list” to make a list
- Give the list a name and add friends/Pages to it
- Tap a list to view posts from only that list
Follow a hashtag
You can follow specific hashtags to see any public posts using that hashtag:
- Tap the search bar at the top
- Search for the hashtag you want to follow e.g. #cats
- Tap “Follow” next to the hashtag
- You will now see posts with that hashtag in your feed
Using these different options, you should be able to customize your Facebook feed under the Home tab to better surface the type of content you want to see.
Why is my Facebook news feed showing old posts?
Some users may notice that despite the news feed being called Home now, they are still seeing old posts bumped back to the top instead of recent updates from their connections.
There are a few possible reasons this could be happening:
- You have Relevant posts enabled rather than Recent posts – this will bump up older posts Facebook thinks are more relevant to you
- One of your connections re-shared an old post, making it appear new again
- An old memory or “On This Day” post from a previous year was resurfaced
- An old post received a lot of new likes, comments or other engagement, so Facebook pushed it back up
If you want to ensure you’re seeing only the newest posts from friends in chronological order, check that you have switched your feed preferences from Relevant to Recent posts.
How to find old Facebook news feed format
Unfortunately, there is no way to completely revert back to having the news feed act as the main Facebook page like it used to. The old chronological news feed has been permanently replaced by the algorithmic Home feed focused on “Relevant” content.
The best you can do is:
- Tap into Home each time to access your news feed
- Change the feed to Recent posts rather than Relevant
- Use lists to view friend/Page groups chronologically
But the days of the classic chronological news feed being the default homepage when you open Facebook are gone. Facebook has evolved, and users will have to adapt to these newest changes to how the news feed works.
Should I delete Facebook without a news feed?
The loss of the classic news feed has caused some users to consider deleting their Facebook accounts altogether. Is it really worthwhile staying on the platform without the core news feed experience? There are pros and cons to weigh.
Pros of deleting Facebook
- Avoid algorithmic or filtered content – You’ll no longer be subject to Facebook’s opaque algorithm controlling what you see.
- More privacy – Facebook won’t be able to collect as much data and metadata about you.
- Less distraction – It can be tempting to doomscroll through an infinite news feed.
- More free time – No more time wasted aimlessly browsing Facebook.
Cons of deleting Facebook
- Lose connections – It will be harder to keep in touch with friends, family and groups who primarily use Facebook.
- Miss events – You may miss being invited to events, parties, and gatherings.
- Less access to contacts – Especially for professional networking and connections.
- FOMO – You may feel left out seeing posts from social circles.
Alternatives to try first
Before fully deleting your Facebook account, you may want to try limiting its use with these alternatives:
- Unsubscribe from emails/notifications.
- Remove the app from your phone.
- Restrict to only accessing Facebook on desktop.
- Limit yourself to only checking once per day.
- Rely more on Messenger for direct communication.
With Facebook still being used by billions of people worldwide, it may make sense to retain at least a limited presence on the platform – even without the classic news feed experience.
Conclusion
The Facebook news feed as the central homepage is now officially a thing of the past. While your news feed still exists under the new Home tab, Facebook has deprioritized it in favor of other services like Reels. This shift will certainly take some adjusting for long-time users.
But with some customized settings to your Home feed and alternative ways to consume content, you can recreate parts of the old news feed experience. And if Facebook ultimately no longer brings you joy or value without its legacy news feed, deleting your account permanently remains an option – albeit one to take cautiously.
Facebook’s platform will continue evolving, and the news feed may look very different again in the future. As users, the best we can do is learn to adapt with the changes or move on. The social media landscape persists in flux, and the only true constant is that things will look different tomorrow than they do today – for better or worse.
In the meantime, happy posting (wherever you may find yourself)!
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