Facebook has released a new type of timeline post that allows users to create and publish personal lists.
Lists can be about anything— to-do lists, top 10 lists, bucket lists, lists of dream travel destinations, and so on.
This feature was first spotted last month, but TechCrunch is now reporting that it’s being rolled out more widely.
NEW: Facebook has a new ‘list’ post feature! (Coming soon?)
h/t @wongmjane pic.twitter.com/xBLS1Oygwq
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) January 22, 2018
By all accounts this is Facebook making good on its promise to make the social network more personal. Creating and sharing lists encourages people to reveal more about themselves, which could lead to greater engagement between friends and family members.
This update also serves Facebook’s interests of keeping people within the Facebook ecosystem. With a new form of native content to share, users may be less inclined to share content from outside sources.
One may also argue that getting users to create lists of things they like generates more personal info to sell to advertisers. A Facebook executive has already squashed that theory on Twitter:
Actually we built lists because we saw lots of people creating lists as long statuses and with pictures, and thought it would be good to make it easier for people to create lists first class. I hope we can get to a point, someday, where you don't always assume ill intent.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) February 13, 2018
For as long as I’ve been on the web, one thing that never seems to change is peoples’ affinity for sharing lists. I see this feature being a big deal for Facebook once everyone has access to it.
