Facebook expands news tab; updates marketplace

Facebook is expanding 'Today In', it's dedicated news tab to more than 6,000 cities across the US and making improvements to the feature.

First launched in 2018, and now with the expansion, the platform has made a few simultaneous changes. Facebook has started to limit access to the news section to who are registered with their news Page index.

The company has built also built a dashboard that allows publishers to see which of their articles are appearing on Today In, in reverse chronological order, along with a list of the communities where each article is appearing.

The dashboard is being tested with a small number of Pages as of now.

Along with launching a pilot program called the Facebook Journalism Project Community Network, Facebook is also working on features such as 'breaking news' indicator.

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When local news publishers mark a post as 'breaking news', people see the breaking news indicator next to that post in the News Feed.

Other options being tested are real-time notifications, integrations wherein Today In posts are pinned to the top.

Today In, is currently available in select cities in US and Australia. If available in your city, you can find it on the menu (☰) section of the Facebook app.

In another news, Facebook has been found testing a remodeled menu sidebar with Marketplace. Presently, in the menu, you can see 'Marketplace' listed with an icon similar to the other options on the menu.

The news version shows preview highlights of the items available and their price along with a few names of the friends using it.