Facebook's redesigned mobile app and desktop are focused on community

This is an excerpt from a story delivered exclusively to Business Insider Intelligence Digital Media Briefing subscribers. To receive the full story plus other insights each morning, click here.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a slew of product changes across its family of apps at Facebook's annual F8 conference on Tuesday. Among the most significant, core Facebook will launch a redesign of its mobile app and desktop to prioritize groups and events, per The Verge.Under the redesign, a new “Groups” tab is moving to the center of the mobile app's menu bar, with “Events” neatly situated next to it. The rollout will come to desktop in the coming months. The redesign comes as Facebook looks to shift users away from the more public “town square” of News Feed and into the “digital living room” by encouraging smaller, more private interactions. The move is a fundamental shift, as it deemphasizes the platform's long-standing focal point: the News Feed.The motivation stems from a stated desire to make the platform more community-based, and will lean on what have previously been more peripheral features like Groups or Events — which bring together users according to a common interest — to do so. Centralizing such features could encourage users to reduce the amount of general life tidbits they share and instead drive more intentional usage that's based around interests, locations, or common causes. Encouraging more intentional use via Groups could help Facebook drive higher, more active engagement, as users may develop niches they're unable to find elsewhere. Not only does this shift fit neatly into Facebook's stated motto that “the future is private” — groups and events can be closed or secret — but it also could drive more meaningful social interaction.Facebook has been living in turmoil recently, and its US engagement might be slipping as a result: 79% of US respondents said they use social media in 2019, but just 61% said they used Facebook, down from 67% in 2017, per Edison. Streamlining user ability to interact with communities that matter to users could help Facebook to renovate its image as an essential social utility in users' lives.Facebook is in a moment of redefinition as it recognizes that social media needs to feed into the priorities of its users. Those priorities come in many different forms — from integrating messaging apps so users don't have to toggle between platforms, to protecting user privacy, to an emphasis on more meaningful, common interest-based interaction.The world's largest social network is taking a moment to pause and reorient itself around what it believes its users want. That's a distinct shift for a company whose old motto was “move fast and break things.” Given that Facebook's US reputation is essentially in the gutter — and still sinking, per a national poll run by Axios — the F8 announcements seem prudent. The social network had to do something to turn public opinion around, and this shift, along with its broader moves to protect user privacy via encryption and emphemeral content, could help it move on from its tumultous recent history. Interested in getting the full story？ Here are two ways to get access: 1. Sign up for the Digital Media Briefing to get it delivered to your inbox 6x a week. >> Get Started2. Subscribe to a Premium pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to the Digital Media Briefing, plus more than 250 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More Now