Facebook's India-focused news feed feature launched

Facebook's India-focused news feed feature launched

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GURGAON: Social media giant Facebook a short while ago announced a new feature for providing India-focused news feeds. This decision was announced at Facebook's yet-to-be-officially-launched office here.

Among the features of the new architecture will be:

1. Client side ranking

2. Fetching stories throughout the day

3. Surfacing stories from your phone (you haven't seen)

4. Inserting new loaded stories into people's feeds while they scroll

These features will be rolled out today to a limited number of users at first. It's (mobile) Android-only -- for now. "Facebook has tested these features globally but the user engagement is the highest in India as it addresses specific Indian needs such as low connectivity," Facebook VP product management Adam Mosseri said.

Among its many firsts, Facebook Messenger’s Data Saver option recently started rolling out to Android phones in India. A new setting has been spotted on the app in the latest Google Pixel smartphone and an older Samsung device running Android 5.1. The setting was not available on an iOS version of the app.

Facebook has started rolling out the feature to regular app users as well. Users have the option of toggling on/off the data saver mode in the settings. Facebook Messenger will also show much data it has saved per session. One can also reset this data count, depending on your needs.

Also, Facebook recently introduced new features to allow one to order food, request an appointment with a local spa, get a quote and even book movie tickets with your friends' recommendations as you travel to a new place.