Meta Updates Facebook Reels with AI-Powered Fresh Content and Social Features

Meta Platforms has rolled out significant updates to Facebook Reels aimed at enhancing content discovery and social interaction, leveraging AI to make the experience fresher, more relevant, and more engaging. The upgraded recommendation system now surfaces 50% more Reels from creators that were published on the same day, addressing user demand for newer and more timely content. This update is part of Meta’s ongoing strategy to capture the growing video consumption trend, especially as time spent watching videos on Facebook has surged over 20% year-over-year in the U.S.

One of the standout features in this update is the introduction of AI-powered search suggestions directly within the Reels player, allowing users to explore related content seamlessly without navigating away. This is similar to discovery features seen on platforms like TikTok, furthering Meta’s commitment to keeping users engaged with relevant and interest-driven videos.

Meta also added "friend bubbles," small profile icons appearing on Reels and Feed posts that indicate which friends have liked a piece of content. By tapping on these bubbles, users can instantly jump into private chats, enhancing real-time social connections and fostering a community feel within Facebook Reels. This addition draws inspiration from Instagram’s social features, aiming to deepen interpersonal engagement on the platform.

To give users more control, Meta expanded the “Not Interested” options and improved comment flagging, aiming to reduce low-quality or irrelevant content. The updated Save feature also helps users organize their favorite content in one place, while providing data for Meta to improve recommendations.

Meta is doubling down on longer-form Reels as well, with videos over one minute accounting for a quarter of content from creators with significant followings and contributing to more than 50% of the total watch time on Facebook’s video feed. This shift reflects changing consumption patterns toward more immersive storytelling and instructional videos.

While artificial intelligence plays a critical role in curating content, Meta emphasizes responsible AI usage in its algorithms. AI-generated content is treated on par with human-created videos, evaluated purely based on user engagement. The system learns to adjust recommendations depending on user feedback, minimizing exposure to low-quality “AI slop” and promoting content users find truly interesting.

Meta’s updates demonstrate a strategic pivot toward combining personalized AI-driven recommendations with enhanced social features, aiming to maintain Facebook’s relevance in a fast-evolving digital video market. Meta views these improvements as the beginning of a series of enhancements planned for Facebook Reels, with an eye on continued innovation in personalization and social connectivity.

These developments come amidst Meta's broader push to integrate AI across its apps, ranging from personalized ads to content moderation, reflecting the company’s ambitions to lead in AI-powered social media experiences in 2025 and beyond.investing+3