Reported October 6, 2026, Meta is trialing a video-first Facebook that drops some users into a full-screen Reels feed on open — with the classic feed kept as a second tab and an opt-out, and a U.S. look planned for next year.
2026-10-07 · by Moe Ameen
Meta is testing a version of Facebook that sends users straight into a full-screen, video-first experience when they open the app, putting Reels front and center, as reported by TechCrunch on October 6, 2026. The test is running in India and Indonesia — video-heavy markets outside the U.S. — and Meta says it will explore bringing the experience to the United States next year.
The change is framed as something users can step back from, not a forced default. People included in the test can opt out and return to a Feed-first experience, and the classic Facebook feed stays available as a second tab inside the app. The test was outlined earlier by Facebook head Tom Alison in July, who signaled Meta would begin trialing a video-first Facebook in video-heavy countries before considering a wider rollout.
This sits on top of a change Meta already made across the platform: all new videos posted to Facebook are now shared as Reels regardless of their length or format, and Meta renamed the app's Video tab to "Reels." A Reels-first home screen is the logical next step — it moves short-form video from a tab you navigate to into the first thing you see. It also mirrors the opt-in Reels-first opening experience Instagram has been testing, making this a Meta-wide pattern rather than a single-app experiment. As with any test, availability is limited and the behavior can change, so confirm what is live in your market before planning around a single detail.
The sharp edge of this test is who it affects most: the creators and businesses that have long used Facebook for link posts, text updates, and photos, and never built a vertical-video habit there. A Reels-first home converts that audience into a video-first one, and the honest problem is not "post a Reel" — it is manufacturing on-brand vertical video for a surface you were never filming for. [Kompozy](/) is built to produce that supply from the assets you already have, not from new footage. Point it at a blog post, a product photo, a text update, or a long recording, and it generates net-new verticals: a [Persona Short](/glossary/persona-shorts) with a face-locked HeyGen avatar and auto-captions, [Persona Frames](/glossary/persona-frames) composited into a brand-exact [HyperFrames](/glossary/hyperframes) template, or Clipped Shorts cut from a longer talk — each one held to your voice by the [Persona Brief](/glossary/persona-brief) so a Facebook-first brand does not suddenly sound like a stranger.
Because this is a Meta-wide pattern and not a Facebook quirk, the real leverage is making one short serve every video-first home at once. [Autopilot](/glossary/autopilot) reframes a single vertical with platform-native copy and captions and schedules it to Facebook Reels, the Instagram Reels-first home, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts in one pass, behind a per-post review gate — plus the carousels, photo posts, blogs, and newsletters that still fill the classic feed sitting one tab away. Meta is turning Facebook into a video channel; Kompozy is the engine that keeps a Facebook-first brand supplied with video for it.
No. As reported on October 6, 2026, it is a test running in India and Indonesia, and users included in it can opt out and keep the Feed-first experience. The classic Facebook feed remains available as a second tab in the app. Meta has said it will explore bringing the video-first experience to the U.S. next year, but it is not a forced global default today.
In practice, none for new uploads. Meta already changed Facebook so that all new videos are shared as Reels regardless of their length or format, and it renamed the app's Video tab to "Reels." A Reels-first home takes that a step further by making short-form video the first thing a user sees when they open the app, instead of a tab they navigate to.
It turns Facebook into a video-first surface. Accounts that have mainly posted links, text updates, and photos to Facebook now face an audience being funneled into a vertical-video home, so a steady cadence of on-brand short-form video becomes the main driver of reach. Photos and text posts still live in the classic feed one tab away, but they move to a supporting role. The practical need is producing Reels-ready vertical video consistently — which is the bottleneck tools like Kompozy are built to remove.
They are the same strategy on two apps. Instagram has been testing an opt-in setting that opens straight to Reels, and Facebook is now testing its own video-first home — making it a Meta-wide pattern rather than a one-app experiment. The upshot for creators is that a single vertical short can claim the opening slot on both apps, so producing short-form video well pays off across Meta, not just on one platform.