Facebook is getting one of the biggest facelifts in its 15-year history. On Tuesday, the California-based tech giant announced a sweeping redesign of the social network - ditching its iconic blue menu bar and replacing it with a cleaner, white design, and placing greater-than-ever emphasis on groups.
The changes come as Facebook tries to move past two years of constant scandals, from the social network's role in spreading hate speech that fueled genocide in Myanmar to Cambridge Analytica's misappropriation of tens of millions of users' data.
The new look was formally unveiled at F8, Facebook's annual developer conference in San Jose, California, and gives the social network an appearance that more closely resembles Messenger, Facebook's sister app for messaging. The clean lines and ample white space of Facebook's new look also echo that of photo-sharing app Instagram.
The new Facebook design also gives Stories - the buzzy ephemeral-photo-sharing format - prominent placement at the very top of users' feeds.
There are also significant structural changes that place greater emphasis on user-created groups. Users can post to groups directly from the homepage, groups are given greater prominence on the left-hand sidebar (on desktop), and new tools are being added to specialized types of groups.
The redesigned mobile app will launch "right away," a Facebook spokesperson said in an emailed announcement, while it'll roll out more slowly on desktop - "in the next few months."
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