Facebook Neighborhoods shuts down on October 1
Because Facebook Neighborhoods will be discontinued on October 1, as the business has revealed, add another victim to Meta’s hit list. The shut-down news was first publicized on Twitter(opens in new tab) by social media expert Matt Navarra, who included a screenshot of a Meta project manager using the alias Tohm making the statement in a Facebook group. The project manager continues by announcing that on September 7, the official group for neighborhoods would close, and on October 1, the official service will end. Facebook Neighborhoods has been compared to Nextdoor(opens in a new tab), a social networking application that lets users share posts, news, and goods with individuals in their neighborhood.
Neighborhoods first appeared in Calgary, Canada, in late 2020 as a trial program before expanding to the rest of Canada and a few US cities(opens in new tab) in May 2021. Facebook Groups and Neighborhoods serve similar purposes, while Neighborhoods offer some distinctive features, including allowing users to establish multiple profiles outside of their primary account for their neighborhood. However, the service was plagued by privacy issues. Some people were concerned that neighborhoods would be used to gather user data and serve specialized advertisements when it was originally being tested.
At first, it was unclear why Meta was closing Neighborhoods. In the post, the Meta project manager omitted justification. Additionally, Meta is enhancing Facebook’s search feature to behave more like a “discovery engine,” as the spokesman puts it. Local groups and information will be displayed more frequently on this “discovery engine” in an effort to make public communities easier to find. In order to encourage individuals to share and discuss their interests, Instagram Reels will also receive more attention. In essence, Meta focuses its efforts on the aspects it considers to be superior. But with the shutdown of Neighborhoods, the tech giant is continuing its current spree of getting rid of unwanted features.
Since people would be spending more time indoors due to the COVID-19 epidemic, Meta introduced a number of tools to promote online interactions. But the business has gradually been getting rid of them over time. During the pandemic, services like Facebook Live Shopping, the Novi digital wallet, and Facebook Gaming all launched before being discontinued. It’s important to note that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated the company is experiencing “one of the biggest downturns [it’s] faced in recent history” in a July Q&A session with employees(opens in new tab). Be ready to see a lot more things being removed if this slump is the real reason behind this cancellation frenzy.
As it removes these pandemic-era features, Meta seems to be flinging spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. According to a letter that was leaked, Facebook and Instagram may begin charging users for some of their premium features. Some users, like Daryl Baxter from Techradar, are, to put it mildly, not pleased with this new path.