We may soon lose Facebook as it is; Meta plans to make it a TikTok copy

For many years, Facebook was the king of the social media space. But one day, TikTok came, dethroned Facebook, and became the new ruler. Now comes the question: is Facebook planning to retake its kingdom?

Well, yes, Facebook wants to become the number one social platform again, and as for how it plans to do that, the answer is — drumroll please, we are trying to increase the tension here — to become more like TikTok.

The people from The Verge got their hands on a leaked internal memo from April, written by Tom Alison, the head of the Facebook app. According to the document, Meta wants to turn Facebook's main feed into a "Discovery Engine," which, just like TikTok's "For You" page, will rely on recommendations.

In the revamped version of the Facebook feed, you will see fewer posts from your friends and more suggested, "unconnected" content, which will probably be mostly Reels. As Alison stated, "the biggest gap today" for Facebook is the short-form video factor. This is why Meta's plans are to "make Reels successful" on the platform.

However, Alison reassured concerned employees that Facebook will not stray away from its core mission and will always prioritize sharing between friends and family. It is very much possible that Facebook will still keep a “Friends” tab, which will only show you a feed with content posted by your contacts and nobody else.

Meta also wants to return the Messenger inbox to the Facebook app. Yes, a few years back, Facebook deliberately split the two apps, and now it wants to reunite them again. The reason behind this decision is that people share more content via private messaging services than through Facebook's feed. This is why Meta wants to make Messenger a more fundamental part of Facebook again.

The end result will most likely be a Facebook feed with mostly Stories and Reels, combined with more "unconnected" posts that the discovery engine will recommend to you. It will probably be a more visual experience than it currently is.

Now, Meta's plans for Facebook to provide a similar experience to TikTok could bring a younger demographic to the platform. After all, many people are addicted to the short-video form factor. So, with such an overhaul of the Facebook app, young individuals might come back to the platform. But not all Meta employees agree with the upcoming changes.

Some current and former Meta workers think that with this revamping of Facebook, the platform will move away from its main purpose of connecting you with your friends and family. Furthermore, there are employees who think that becoming more like TikTok will be profitable at the beginning but will hurt the long-term growth of Facebook.