Facebook, that is constantly testing new products and features, seems to be gearing up for some new experiments. These include a “red envelope” feature that may let users send money to others on the service and a “breaking news” tag that publishers will attach to their posts.
The 2 new features, that are not officially being tested yet, were 1st spotted by Matt Navarra, director of social media at the online publication the next web. Navarra, who routinely tweets regarding unreleased products and features he finds in Facebook’s code or through different means, shared screenshots of the features to his Twitter account yesterday.
NEW: Facebook is testing a ‘Red Envelope’ feature to send cash gifts to friends pic.twitter.com/GsADKlKjqH
— Matt Navarra ⭐️ (@MattNavarra) November 3, 2017
Facebook confirmed to recode that the breaking news tag is for a “future test,” but declined to share additional details. the corporate was a little more vague regarding the red envelope feature, although didn’t deny it exists. A rep simply offered that Facebook is “always testing new product experiences but there’s nothing specific to speak about it now.”
Without a formal test running, it’s hard to know what a “breaking news” tag might do for publishers, although it’s possible adding a tag like that to a post could temporarily push stories higher into users’ feeds, generate some kind of alert or notification, or at least help them stand out visually.
NEW: Facebook working on a ‘Breaking News’ tag for news publishers Pages? pic.twitter.com/XnjwSzEVn3
— Matt Navarra ⭐️ (@MattNavarra) November 3, 2017
The red envelope feature is also interesting. Red envelopes are generally used for gift giving, particularly for holidays like Chinese New Year, but the ability to gift somebody money on Facebook would mean Facebook might also facilitate peer-to-peer payments. the corporate already offers payments like this in messenger, but not on Facebook’s main web site or app.
Supporting payments makes some sense considering Facebook’s new Marketplace section. the corporate is encouraging folks to sell things through Marketplace within the same way they might on Craigslist. allowing people to really purchase a purchase on Facebook would also make sense.
It’s also possible that these features can ne’er be rolled out.
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source:recode.net
