Facebook Gives Its Main Function Menu a Blue Gradient Colorful Refresh

If you’ve tapped on the Facebook options menu in the mobile app in the last few days, you may have noticed this.

The listing has been changed from the all-white layout to a blue gradient background, along with bubble tiles for each individual option, with alerts for recent activity beneath each.

The team over at Android Police provided this comparison of the old and new menus side-by-side:

The update certainly makes each individual option stand out – but as you would expect, some (on Twitter) have expressed their disgust at the change.

So why would Facebook do this? The company hasn’t provided any specific insight, but it seems like a simple tweak to better highlight the various options. Definitely, as noted, the separate bubbles for each make it feel a little more interactive, while the blue background helps to make them stand out. Internal testing (some people have had this variation since October) has no doubt shown that people are more inclined to tap on the various tools in this format, which has to lead to a broader roll-out. It’s not clear if/when everyone will get the blue menu, but many more users have reported seeing it this week.

Functionally, there’s no change, but visually, it may make it a little easier to swipe through your options and see what’s been updated and what you need to check.

No doubt opinion will be divided, but it seems to make sense.