Facebook’s evolved over the years but a few things have stay unchanged over the years, like the notification tab. The tab has featured notifications that users have commented, shared, liked, and about other interactions with users. Now Facebook is rolling out an improved tab over the coming weeks which feature assistant like notifications like reminders around your day, friends, and recent activity. The change comes as Facebook’s Messenger team is working on a personal assistant named simply “M”.
Currently, users could potentially see up to 15 cards, but users should only expect 6 or 7 at a time. The goal around Facebook’s new cards is to give users a more personal experience, and users will be given the opportunity to tailor the cards to their needs or completely disable some. Users can expect the normal friends birthday reminders, but should also expect movie recommendations based off movies they’ve liked on Facebook. Users who opt in to use location shouldn’t expect their batteries to be affected because Facebook plans on using history intelligently so it’s not to negatively impact battery life, an issue Facebook has struggled with in the past.
Now Facebook has a long way before it can compare to personal assistants like Google Now or Siri, but it’s making small but important steps towards being more useful. The company has a wealth of data, possibly knows more about you than Google does, and it could use this to recommend movies, restaurants, and events based around locations and likes on the social network.
Facebook wants to provide notifications when a friends from out-of-town is nearby, or a place has useful reviews or tips. While these features have been in other apps like Foursquare they haven’t taken off, and many times aren’t that great at recommending place you would like or enjoy. Facebook though, knows so much it could start to learn what you do and don’t like. They have an upper hand with billions of users rating, recommending, and talking about places, restaurants, and events on the site. Facebook could become more of a tool in the future, and less of a place where you solely go to waste time by looking at pictures of babies or friends you don’t talk to anymore.
Tell us if you want to see these cards or if you think Facebook is trying to reach too far in our lives in the comments below!