Your feed is now the second tab

TL;DR

The old app said, “Here’s what your friends posted.” The test says, “Watch this first.”

Meta is testing Facebook and Instagram versions that open straight into full-screen Reels, with the classic feed a tab or swipe away, in a few countries only.

Before you post, ask yourself: “Does my first frame make sense on mute, with no caption?”

For most of their lives, Facebook and Instagram opened on the same thing: posts from people you chose to follow. Meta is now testing what happens when they open on something else.

Facebook moved the feed one tab over#

Some Facebook users in India, and in Indonesia according to Meta, now land in full-screen Reels the moment they open the app. On arrival, a pop-up tells them Reels are "now front and center". The classic feed is still there, as a second tab, and people in the test can opt out. Facebook head Tom Alison flagged the plan in July and said Meta would explore bringing it to the US next year.

Meta has said young adults spend about 60% of their Facebook time watching video, so the test looks less like a leap than the app catching up with its own users.

Instagram made it a setting#

On Instagram the same idea arrived as an option. App researcher Radu Oncescu found a setting that makes Reels the first screen, with Stories still across the top and the following feed a swipe away. Meta told The Verge it is live in a handful of countries and that people can switch back. The screenshots showed sound on by default. Meta's own line was more careful: Reels unmute once someone swipes or taps into one.

The default does the work#

Tests come and go, and Meta has dropped layouts before. But the direction has been steady for years, and the mechanism is old. People rarely change defaults. Whatever an app shows first is what most of them see, and an opt-out matters less than it sounds, because opting out is a decision and opening an app is a habit.

That is the uncomfortable part for accounts built on still images and long captions. Their posts still exist. They just live in a room fewer people walk into first.

The first frame is the front door#

If these tests stick, a post's first second does the job the grid used to do. Reels that open on a logo or a slow pan have lost the viewer before they start. One that opens on a face mid-sentence, or the finished result already on screen, has a chance.

The sound question is still open, so the safe bet is to design for both. The first frame should make sense on mute without leaning on the caption, and the first spoken line should be the hook for the people who tap in.

None of this means binning the back catalogue. Take your ten best feed posts from the past year and remake the strongest three as vertical video. The idea has already proved itself; only the format is new. Photos and carousels are not finished either. Adam Mosseri said in 2024 that adding music makes them eligible for the Reels tab, which is now the tab that might open first.

Lots of watchers, fewer makers#

One more number explains why Meta keeps pushing. Morning Consult polling cited by The Verge found that 81% of US respondents had watched an Instagram Reel, but only 39% said they had posted one. Feeds that open on video need more video than most people are willing to make, and that gap is the opening for brands that will make it.

Watch how much of your reach comes from Reels each month. If the tests widen, that line will move before anything else does, and it is better to shift the mix gradually now than to rebuild everything the week a test becomes the default.

Sources#

• TechCrunch: Facebook tests going Reels-first in India (6 Oct 2026)

• The Verge: Are you ready for everything to look like TikTok? (8 Oct 2026)

• PetaPixel: Meta tests opening Instagram and Facebook to full-screen video (9 Oct 2026)

• Social Media Today via Yahoo Tech: Meta tests Reels-first Facebook feed in India

• Social Media Today: IG chief recommends posting carousels (2024)