Facebook will soon look drastically different

Facebook is rolling out a major new revamp for its mobile apps today. The company is tweaking the design of some of the core components of Facebook which will make it easier for users to “connect and navigate” the app. While the changes look quite small on paper, they really do change the look of Facebook as we know it.

The big new difference in the new Facebook is the new icons. Facebook now has the so-called “line icons” — a lot like Twitter’s new icons. The new icons for Like, Comment and Share are also slightly bigger, making them “easier to top.” Facebook is also updating the way navigation works on the app by getting rid of the classic blue bar on its app and replacing it with a traditional back icon which is supposed to make navigation on the app less confusing and give some extra screen space to the designers.

But the critical new change in the new Facebook is the new look for conversations. Comments on posts now show up as chat bubbles, similar to how messages do on Facebook Messenger. Facebook says the increased color contrast for the improved conversations design will increase readability.

Oh, and, Facebook is also replacing square profile pictures with circles. Because, as Microsoft would say, people aren’t squares.

The new changes are quite significant for Facebook. These changes are arguably very small, but they substantially change the look of Facebook — so it’ll certainly be fascinating to see how quickly users adapt to the new icons and other design changes.