Facebook checks users' connectivity to filter News Feed

PanARMENIAN.Net - Facebook News Feeds are filled with auto-playing videos, large photos albums, and art-heavy news stories. It makes for a more engaging social-networking experience, but only on speedy connections, PC magazine reports.

With that in mind, Facebook announced it will prioritize News Feed content based on your connection. Those perusing the service on 4G LTE connection will see everything, but those on slower connections, like Internet.org's Free Basics, might only see status updates and links rather than data-heavy videos.

"What this means for us on the News Feed team is making sure people can load and scroll through News Feed on any connection speed," Emerging Markets Product Manager Chris Marra and Engineering Manager Alex Sourov wrote in a blog post.

A current story will take priority, Facebook said. "For example, if you are looking at a photo your friend posted or a photo from a Page you've liked, that isn't fully downloaded, we prioritize that photo over loading a story below it that you aren't currently looking at, so you can see the most important photos you're viewing as quickly as possible," Marra and Sourov wrote.

"We're also investing in the best image formats for photo loading," they said, by moving to a Progressive JPEG photo format. This lets Facebook show a lower-quality version of the image until it downloads fully, "so you can see some of the photo instead of nothing."