Meta introduces new discovery and customization controls for Facebook Reels

Image credits: Jacob Borzycki/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today that the company is introducing new features that make it easier for users to discover and customize Facebook Reels recommendations. The company is launching new customization controls for Reels that allow users to customize what they want to see more or less.

Now when you see a video, you can click on the three-dot menu at the bottom of the video player and select either “Show more” or “Show less.” Users will start seeing this option at the bottom of their reels as well as videos in their watch feed. If you select the “Show more” option on a reel, Facebook will temporarily increase the rating points for itself and for the reels you like. Selecting the Show Less option will temporarily lower its rating. Facebook previously introduced Show More and Show Less buttons in regular posts on the social network.

Image credits: Facebook

Facebook is also introducing new labels on the Reels video player to explain why you’re seeing a particular reel. For example, Facebook will now tell you that it’s showing a particular reel because a friend of yours liked it.

Additionally, Facebook is making it easier to discover relevant Reels by adding Reels to the main navigation bar at the top of the Facebook Watch to give users quick access to short videos. Additionally, when watching videos on Facebook, users will now be able to scroll between Reels and longer videos.

Today’s announcement comes a few weeks after the Meta added support for longer Facebook Reels of up to 90 seconds, along with some new creative tools, including a new Templates feature that allows users to create Reels using popular templates.

Meta has previously said that Reels is the fastest growing format and that it continues to grow rapidly. Last week, Zuckerberg said during Meta’s quarterly earnings call that time spent on Instagram has grown more than 24% since the company launched Reels on the platform thanks to AI-powered content recommendations. Meta CFO Susan Lee seems shy to ask an analyst if Reels is having a similar effect on Facebook, but she notes time and again that on Facebook, AI-based recommendations that don’t come from direct communications increase engagement among users.