Facebook has once again upped its game, this time with a major upgrade of the Facebook notifications tab in its mobile app.
The expanded and personalized Facebook notifications tab is now more of a you-centric news feed than ever, sucking some of the best widgets from the sidebar on desktop while giving notifications an easy to navigate and structured appearance.
The Facebook notifications tab will still show you what’s going on in your Facebook world together with movies playing in theatres, upcoming events, nearby businesses and a list of nearby places to eat. You will also get the local news and weather updates, including current conditions and severe weather alerts.
Weather updates are particularly important to many small business owners as severe weather can bring your business plans to a screeching halt. An unexpected storm can cause flights to be delayed, slow sales, or cause travel times to be extended. That’s where the new mobile Facebook notification comes in. It will help you plan ahead and stay on top of the weather.
Each Reminder will appear in the form of a card, telling you if a public figure or a celebrity, whose page you’ve liked, is appearing at an event or if your favorite sports team has an upcoming game.
“With this update, your current notification settings will not change, and you can adjust those any time in your Settings,” Facebook product manager Keith Peiris said in a post. “You can also customize the info you see by tapping the arrow to the right of each card, or ‘Add More Cards’ at the bottom of the tab.”
In its look and feel, Facebook’s new notifications tab acts a lot like Google Now launched by Google in 2012.
The social media giant even calls the notifications features “cards” just like Google does.
It is, however, clear that Facebook notifications tab offers nowhere near the functionality that Google Now currently offers its users, but that’s beside the point: the update is a start, a definite move.
Facebook already has a lot of information about its users, leveraging their contributions to to gain information with which to personalize features including notifications and updates. The app may also prove more useful as it will be able to tell you what you would like to know even before you ask.
The new personalized options are gradually being rolled out to iOS and Android users of the Facebook app in the United States. There is, however, no word on if or when the feature will be availed to international users.
Image: Facebook
Aira Bongco
I guess they really upped their game if they are now showing personalized updates. I guess it is good in the sense that you can keep up with things that you really care about.