Facebook is testing a new app experience in India that takes some users directly to a full-screen video feed when they open the platform, putting Reels ahead of the traditional News Feed. The test gives users the option to switch back to the existing Feed-first experience, while the classic feed remains available as a separate tab.
The move marks a noticeable shift for Facebook, where the News Feed has traditionally been the starting point. Instead of opening with a mix of posts, photos, links and videos, selected users will now land directly in a video-heavy interface designed around scrolling through Reels.
The test follows Meta’s broader push to make video a bigger part of Facebook. Last year, the company said that new videos uploaded to Facebook would be shared as Reels regardless of their length or format, while the platform also renamed its Video tab to ‘Reels.’ Meta has also said young adults spend around 60% of their time on Facebook watching videos.
India has previously been used to test Meta’s short-form video products. After TikTok was banned in the country in 2020, Instagram began testing a dedicated Reels tab in India. Meta also tested a similar Reels-first experience for some Instagram users in India and South Korea last year, making the current Facebook experiment another step in that direction.
The scale of video consumption makes India particularly important for the experiment. Meta says 97% of users surveyed in its commissioned studies watch video on its platforms every day, while 89% of Gen Z respondents said they use Reels daily. India is also Facebook’s largest market, with Meta’s advertising tools indicating an audience of more than 400 million users.
