Aug. 16 (UPI) —Â Social media platforms Facebook and Instagram have unveiled redesigns aimed to improve readability, ease navigation and unburden users trying to post comments.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, said Tuesday it would make users’ News Feed “more conversational and easier to read and navigate” through updates in the coming weeks. To help users have “more lively and expressive conversations on Facebook,” the company has “updated our comment style and made it easier to see which comments are direct replies to another person.”
The readability changes also include greater color contrast so that typography is more legible, larger link previews, updated icons and larger like, comment, and share buttons — as well as circular profile pictures to show who’s posting or commenting.
The updates will also show where a link leads prior to clicking the link and allow readers to more easily return to their News Feed after reading, via a more prominent back button.
Facebook said the design updates should not affect reach or referral traffic for pages.
Instagram on Tuesday also revealed updates to its service, aimed to make the social media platform a “better place to share interests, get inspired and connect with others.”
“We’re making conversations about Instagram posts even easier by adding comment threads. Comment threads help you keep track of conversations and make it easy to respond to a specific thread,” Instagram said in a statement. “Now, when you hit reply underneath any comment, your response will automatically be grouped right underneath it in a thread.”
