By Andrew Hutchinson
Source: Social Media Today
I don’t know what to make of this.
According to reports, Facebook is now testing a new ‘Text effects’ option for News Feed posts which would enable users to apply a range of stylized text types within their Facebook updates.
This example was provided by user Scott Grenney (and shared by Matt Navarra). As you can see, when posting on desktop, Grenney has the new option to add ‘Text Effects’ below the main post field (and worth noting, Grenney is based in the UK, though we don’t have any info on the specifics of the test at this stage).
There are currently five text options to choose from, which reflect those available within Facebook Stories. Those are:
- Fancy
- Simple
- Clean
- Headline
- Casual
In Stories they seem to make more sense, given the highly visual focus of the tool, but in the News Feed… I’m not so sure.
Of course, users can already add a colorful background to their posts, so it’s not a huge leap in that respect. But still, it could make your Feed pretty messy looking if a few of your connections are particularly enthusiastic about expressing their ‘flair’ via the options provided.
Facebook hasn’t released stats on how many people currently use those colored backgrounds on posts, but you’d assume that there’d be some crossover between the users who do and those who would also utilize these text options. Based on anecdotal evidence, most users don’t use post backgrounds, and because they’re not the default, they’ve never really seemed to take off. But they are there, they are another option – and by providing both background and text options within the update creation window, maybe Facebook can further prompt sharing into Facebook Stories, which is where the company really wants to see user attention shift.
But it could get old quick. We’ve asked Facebook for further clarification on the test and whether there are any further plans for the option (i.e. whether it’s desktop only), and we’ll update you as we hear.