Facebook Improves News Feed For Users On Slower Connections

If you are on a poor Internet connection and your News Feed is loading slowly, we will first download the story you’re now looking at, rather than download a series of News Feed stories.

Yesterday, October 6 Facebook’s News Feed feature is upgraded in order to quickly load content on Android with slow or weak Internet connections.

The reports further highlighted the fact that list of the numerous Facebook’s users are in budding markets who are using weak 2G connections, includes India, Brazil and Mexico, where all the users using weak connections were finding it hard task to upload their favorite pictures and videos which requires extra uploading data. So if you are reading a post from your friend about their weekend, but doing so on a slower connection, we will load more stories while you’re reading so they are ready for you when you’re done reading that post.

Ever accommodating Facebook prioritizes the News Feed based on your internet connection so that you may receive everything you’re interested in much faster and with less data snatched from your plan.

According to The Indian Express, Facebook Emerging Markets Product Manager Chris Marra and Emerging Markets Engineering Manager Alex Sourov wrote in a blog post that explains the changes. The system will also work to prioritize content in the News Feed that the person is now looking at over content they aren’t. This is achieved through a tool called Network Connection Class, which tests broadband speed at any given moment. “News Feed is a product you tend to want to check regularly throughout the day, and that’s not possible when it’s slow to load”, the executive said.

Aside from filtering content, Facebook will also load additional stories and photos in advance while users are still reading certain status posts or news articles. It’s going to take into account speed of mobile or Wi-Fi connection now, this will allow News Feed to determine what kind of stories to surface. This lets Facebook show a lower-quality version of the image until it downloads fully, “so you can see a few of the photo instead of nothing”. It will do so by recalling the articles and content that loaded when the user visited Facebook the last time but did not click on them.

Of course, this will come at a cost, in the sense that users with poor internet connectivity will only see the basics. You can scroll down and see stories from your previous visit to News Feed until you are able to connect again to a mobile network. These changes are already supposedly taking place on your Facebook News Feed right now.