Meta’s Testing a New Layout in the Desktop Version of Facebook

Facebook appears to be testing a new layout in the desktop version of the app, with some users recently having this new format unleashed on their screens.

That seems like a lot.

According to Mashable, the new layout appeared for some users last week, with an update alert in the app explaining the change, which moves all of your navigation options to the left side of the screen.

Though it seems pretty chaotic – take a look at this image of the new desktop groups layout.

As Mashable notes, many other desktop apps are left-aligned like this, with Twitter and Gmail also displaying all of your various options in the same way.

Though they seem less crowded. Maybe the menus are meant to be more collapsible, so you don’t have everything on screen at once. Maybe that would work, in streamlining your view to focus on one central point, as opposed to displaying so many options at once.

Then again, maybe not – maybe Meta wants to ensure that users are aware of the various options available, and highlighting them on screen is a way to encourage broader use.

There’s not a heap to go on at this stage, and it does seem like at least some elements are still in testing, so it may well be that this is just a test right now to see how users respond.

But it could be coming – or at the least, it’s probably an indicator of where Meta is looking, in terms of developing the app’s next stage.

We’ve asked Meta for more info on the test and we’ll update this post if/when we hear back.