14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook is apparently trying to get creative again with a feature that might end up making you crazy, and not a the good way. The social network is testing out a feature for desktop users that transforms some posts on your feed into pop-ups.
The pop-up post appears at the bottom of the screen, around the same area where the instant messages appear. The box has a text field so you can comment and you can also choose whether to see the full post or just hide it.
“We’ve heard from people that they would like an easier way to participate in conversations on a post while they are still in News Feed so we are testing a new option that opens up a window when someone comments on your post, replies to your comment or tags you in a comment. You can always hide the conversation or turn off notifications from within the dropdown menu of the post,” a Facebook spokesperson told CNET.
Now, that doesn’t exactly sound too terrible, but it’s not ideal either since the hate against pop-ups of any type is kind of universal at this point. On the other hand, having the option to only use Facebook in one tab, rather than open two or three depending on how many posts you’re receiving comments on and, thus, notifications, might also be great.
Just a test
This seems to be a small test, but when you have nearly 1.9 billion people using the service every month, “small” is a relative term. Whether we’ll end up seeing this feature rolled out across the platform remains to be seen and it all depends on how the testing goes.
Don’t think, however, that this is just something Facebook does for you. It’s in their interest to keep you scrolling, even if you’re keeping an eye on a post you made or a comment you posted. Those ads you see as you scroll translate to money for Facebook and that’s obviously a quite important part of the whole business.