Facebook Tests Reels-First Experience in India

Facebook is testing a major redesign of its opening experience in India, with some users now being taken directly to a full-screen Reels feed when they launch the app. The experiment puts video ahead of Facebook’s traditional News Feed, reflecting Meta’s broader shift toward short-form and immersive video.

The test does not eliminate the classic Feed. Users included in the experiment can switch back to a Feed-first experience, while the traditional Feed remains available as a separate tab. Meta had previously said it planned to test this approach in video-heavy markets outside the US before potentially bringing it to American users in 2027.

Key takeaways

• Facebook is testing a Reels-first home experience in India.
• Selected users open the app directly into a full-screen video feed.
• The traditional Facebook Feed remains available as a separate tab.
• Users in the experiment can opt out and return to Feed-first.
• Meta had announced plans for this test earlier in 2026.
• India was selected as an early test market because of its strong video consumption.
• Meta says Reels has become a major part of how Indians consume short-form video.
• The move follows Meta’s decision to classify new Facebook video uploads as Reels.
• The change could give creators greater visibility while making the opening seconds of videos more important.
• Meta is expected to use the test to determine whether a video-first Facebook experience improves engagement.

Facebook is putting Reels at the front door

For years, opening Facebook meant arriving at a Feed dominated by posts from friends, pages, groups and other accounts.

That is now changing for a subset of Indian users.

Under the new experiment, Facebook opens directly into a full-screen video interface. Instead of seeing a mixture of text, photos and videos and deciding what to watch, users immediately receive a stream of recommended Reels.

The approach resembles the video-led home screens seen elsewhere. Lapaas Voice has also examined Meta’s data collection questions, which matter when recommendation systems occupy more of the app’s opening experience.

Meta is not forcing the change on every Facebook user. The company is testing it with selected users and allowing those users to return to the traditional Feed-first experience. The classic Feed is also retained as a second tab.

That makes the experiment less about completely replacing Facebook and more about testing a different starting point.

Why India is getting the test

India is one of Meta’s most important markets for video. For the broader context, see Lapaas Voice’s coverage of Instagram algorithm controls and Meta’s Muse strategy for small businesses.

TechCrunch reports that Meta’s advertising tools indicate Facebook has an audience of more than 400 million people in India, making the country the platform’s largest market by users.

Meta has also published research highlighting the scale of Reels consumption in the country.

In a September 2025 study commissioned by Meta, 97% of surveyed Indian consumers said they watched short-form video at least once a day, while 95% said they watched Reels every day. The study surveyed more than 3,500 people across 33 centers in India.

Meta also reported that 89% of Gen Z respondents in a later India-focused study used Reels every day.

These figures help explain why India is a logical market for testing a video-first interface.

If users already spend significant amounts of time watching short-form video, Meta can test whether removing the extra step of navigating from the Feed to Reels results in more viewing and interaction.

The classic Feed is not disappearing

The wording around the test is important.

Facebook is not becoming permanently Reels-only.

Users included in the experiment can opt out of the new experience and return to Feed-first. Meta is also retaining Classic Feed as a separate tab.

This gives Meta an important advantage during the experiment.

The company can measure whether users who begin with Reels watch more videos, interact more frequently or remain on Facebook longer without completely removing the social-networking experience that existing users are accustomed to.

For users who primarily use Facebook for friends, family, groups or text-based updates, the traditional Feed remains accessible.

The experiment is therefore closer to personalization than a universal redesign.

Meta has been moving Facebook toward Reels for years

The Reels-first experiment did not appear suddenly.

Meta has been gradually removing the distinction between traditional Facebook videos and Reels.

In June 2025, Meta announced that all new videos uploaded to Facebook would eventually be shared as Reels, regardless of their length or format. The company also said Facebook Reels would no longer have the previous length and format restrictions.

Meta also renamed Facebook’s Video tab as the Reels tab.

That change was strategically important.

It meant Reels was no longer simply Facebook’s answer to TikTok-style short videos. The company was effectively turning Reels into the broader destination for video on Facebook.

The latest experiment takes that strategy one step further: instead of making users navigate to Reels, Facebook can potentially make Reels the first thing they see.

Facebook is still keeping long-form video

A Reels-first interface does not necessarily mean Facebook is abandoning longer videos.

Meta has explicitly said Facebook remains a home for short, long and live video. Its decision to classify videos as Reels is primarily about simplifying the publishing and discovery experience rather than imposing a strict duration limit.

That distinction matters because Facebook’s video strategy is broader than the short clips commonly associated with TikTok.

Creators can publish different types of video through the same system, while Facebook’s recommendation engine determines which content to show individual users.

Meta said in October 2025 that Reels longer than one minute represented a significant portion of creator output and watch time on Facebook, highlighting the platform’s continued interest in longer video formats.

The recommendation algorithm becomes even more important

A Reels-first Facebook makes the recommendation system more important than ever.

With a traditional Feed, the user sees a mixture of content from people and communities they follow alongside recommendations.

With a full-screen video interface, each swipe becomes a decision about whether the next piece of content deserves the user’s attention.

That puts greater pressure on Meta’s recommendation systems to understand what an individual user wants to watch.

Meta has already been investing in Facebook’s Reels recommendation engine. In October 2025, the company said it had upgraded its system to understand users’ interests more quickly and surface newer and more relevant Reels. It also said the system was surfacing 50% more Reels published that day from creators.

The Reels-first test gives Meta another opportunity to measure how those recommendations perform when video is the primary entry point.

What the change means for creators

For Facebook creators, the experiment could be significant.

If Reels becomes the first screen for more users, creators could gain more opportunities to reach audiences through recommendations rather than relying entirely on followers.

But the reverse is also true.

When every user immediately sees a full-screen video, competition for attention becomes more intense.

The first seconds of a Reel become especially important because there are fewer distractions between the user and the video. A weak opening can be skipped almost immediately.

This could push Facebook creators toward production styles already common on TikTok and Instagram: faster openings, stronger visual hooks, subtitles, concise storytelling and frequent scene changes.

However, Facebook’s advantage remains its enormous existing network of communities, groups, older users and established creators.

A Reels-first experience could potentially connect that older social-network infrastructure with a more modern video-discovery model.

What it means for advertisers

The change could also influence advertising.

Short-form video has become a major advertising format across Meta’s platforms because it combines high-frequency consumption with recommendation-driven discovery.

Meta reported in 2025 that Reels ads generated stronger brand outcomes than long-form skippable video ads in its India research. Specifically, the company said Reels ads delivered two times stronger top-of-mind recall and four times stronger message association compared with long-form video ads in the study.

These are Meta-commissioned findings rather than independent industry measurements, so they should be treated accordingly.

Nevertheless, the direction is clear: Meta sees Reels as commercially valuable.

If Facebook begins opening directly into Reels for more users, advertisers could eventually gain another high-attention environment for video campaigns.

The key question will be whether Meta can preserve user experience while increasing advertising density.

Facebook is trying to compete with the short-video habit

The broader issue is that social media consumption has changed.

Users increasingly open an app without a specific person or page in mind. Instead, they expect the platform’s recommendation algorithm to immediately provide something interesting.

TikTok popularized this behavior, while Instagram built Reels into a central part of its own experience.

Facebook has historically been organized around a different idea: a social Feed where people see updates from friends, pages and groups.

The Reels-first experiment represents Meta’s attempt to combine the two models.

Facebook can retain its traditional social graph while adopting a more entertainment-driven discovery experience.

That could be particularly important for younger users who are more accustomed to opening an app and immediately watching recommended videos.

Meta already tested Reels-first on Instagram in India

Facebook’s experiment follows an earlier Reels-first test on Instagram.

In September 2025, Meta said it was testing a Reels-first Instagram experience for a limited group of users in India. Under that design, users opened Instagram directly into Reels, while Stories remained accessible at the top and direct messages were moved into the navigation bar.

The Facebook experiment is therefore part of a wider Meta strategy.

The company is testing whether video should become the default entry point across more of its social applications.

India has repeatedly been used as an important testing ground for this strategy because of its large user base and strong adoption of short-form video.

Why Meta is not simply removing the Feed

There is a strategic reason for keeping the Feed available.

Facebook is still fundamentally different from Instagram and TikTok.

Millions of users rely on Facebook for community groups, local information, family updates, marketplace activity and other forms of interaction that do not naturally fit into a Reels-only interface.

Removing the Feed entirely could therefore damage some of Facebook’s strongest use cases.

The two-tab approach lets Meta separate the experiences.

Users who want entertainment can start with Reels. Users who want traditional Facebook can move to the Classic Feed.

This could ultimately lead to a more personalized Facebook rather than a universally video-first one.

India could become a blueprint for other markets

Meta has indicated that it wants to test the new experience outside the US first, particularly in markets where users consume large amounts of video.

TechCrunch reports that the company plans to explore bringing the experience to the US next year.

That makes the Indian experiment more important than a simple regional product test.

If Meta sees meaningful improvements in engagement, retention or video consumption, it could use results from India and other international markets to refine the experience before a broader rollout.

On the other hand, if users strongly prefer the traditional Feed, Meta can retain Reels as a major destination without making it the default starting point.

The bigger picture

Facebook is no longer treating Reels as a separate video format sitting alongside its traditional social Feed. Meta’s gradual changes suggest it increasingly sees video as the primary way many users discover content, creators, products and communities.

The Reels-first experiment is the next logical step in that strategy.

For Meta, the opportunity is significant. A full-screen video opening can potentially increase watch time and make Facebook more competitive with TikTok and Instagram while giving creators a larger recommendation-driven audience.

But the company has to balance that opportunity against Facebook’s original strength: relationships and communities.

The experiment is effectively asking a fundamental product question: Should Facebook’s future begin with what your friends posted, or with what Meta thinks you will want to watch?

For now, Meta is testing both answers.

Looking Ahead

The immediate focus will be on how Indian users respond to the new opening experience. If users who receive Reels first watch more content and remain engaged without abandoning Facebook’s social features, Meta will have stronger evidence for expanding the design to additional markets.

The longer-term impact could extend beyond Facebook. Meta is gradually building a common video-discovery model across its platforms, with Reels serving as a central layer for creators, entertainment and commerce. India’s experiment could therefore provide an early indication of what Facebook’s next generation of home-screen experience will look like.

Sources and verification

Meta’s July 24 announcement by Facebook head Tom Alison said a selected group in video-heavy international markets would be taken into full-screen video on opening the app, with opt-out and Classic Feed access. It did not identify India. TechCrunch’s October 6 original report identified India and obtained Meta confirmation of the current test. Social Media Today separately showed a user-posted example of the test interface, while crediting TechCrunch for the news. Indian Television also covered the rollout; its report does not disclose independent confirmation. These latter two reports are therefore context, not three independent confirmations of every detail.

Meta’s September 2025 India study and June 2026 India study provide the consumption figures cited above. Both were commissioned by Meta and should be read as vendor research rather than an independent measure of the entire Indian population. Neither study proves that the current design will increase engagement or advertising revenue.

FAQs

Is Facebook becoming Reels-only in India?

No. Facebook is testing a Reels-first opening experience with selected users. The traditional Feed remains available as another tab, and participants can opt out of the test.

Why is Meta testing Reels-first in India?

India is one of Meta’s largest markets and has strong short-form video consumption. Meta’s own research indicates very high daily short-form video and Reels usage among surveyed Indian users.

What happens to the Facebook Feed?

The Classic Feed remains available as a separate tab. Users included in the experiment can also return to the Feed-first experience.

Will Reels become the default Facebook experience globally?

That has not been announced. Meta is testing the experience first. TechCrunch reports that Meta plans to explore a US rollout in 2027, but a global rollout is not confirmed.