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Your Facebook Notifications Are About to Look Very Different

2 minute read
Facebook will soon be able to show you movies playing at theaters nearby and more.Facebook
By Lisa Eadicicco

Facebook notifications on your phone are about to look a lot different.

The social network announced Tuesday that it’s revamping the Notifications tab in its mobile apps to show users more information, including events happening nearby, movies playing at local theaters, nearby restaurants, weather updates and more.

The Notifications section in the Facebook app currently alerts you when friends interact with you — if a friend likes a post you’ve written or have been tagged in, for instance. The new Notifications tab, however, will give you more information about what’s happening in the world around you, similar to the way Google Now offers up tips based on your location.

This is an optional feature; Facebook won’t ping you with these notifications unless you enable Location History within the Facebook app.

A Glimpse Inside A Facebook Server Farm

The data center holds tens of thousands servers.
The data center holds tens of thousands servers.Martin Schoeller For TIME
These rows of servers are set up to minimize the energy required to keep the data center running.
These rows of servers are set up to minimize the energy required to keep the data center running.Martin Schoeller For TIME
A close up of the servers in two racks.
A close up of the servers in two racks.Martin Schoeller For TIME
The center includes sophisticated coolings systems and back up power supplies.
The center includes sophisticated coolings systems and back up power supplies.Martin Schoeller For TIME
Cables connect servers in the center with each other and the entire facility with the outside world.
Cables connect servers in the center with each other and the entire facility with the outside world.Martin Schoeller For TIME
The center was constructed using a "layered replication" model that makes failure almost impossible, even if a regional power system blacks out.
The center was constructed using a "layered replication" model that makes failure almost impossible, even if a regional power system blacks out.Martin Schoeller For TIME
The facility where photographer Martin Schoeller took these photos is located 25 minutes by car from Facebook's headquarters. The company is currently building a state-of-the-art data center in Prineville, Oregon, among other sites.
The facility is located 25 minutes by car from Facebook's headquarters. Since these photographs were taken, Facebook has built more state-of-the-art facilities.Martin Schoeller For TIME
The servers process updates to Facebook users' pages as quickly as possible, so that a comment or post is live within seconds. Multiply that across 550 million (and counting) users and the power of the data center becomes awesome indeed.
The servers process every update to Facebook users' pages.Martin Schoeller For TIME

In addition to showing you nearby events and places, other interests such as sports scores, reminders about TV shows you watch based on the pages you’ve liked, and friends’ life events will pop up in your notifications as well. You’ll be able to customize these notifications, so Facebook shouldn’t show you irrelevant information that you don’t want to see.

These bits of information will be divided into categories and displayed in a card-style format, comparable to Google Now.

Read more: Here’s how Facebook’s News Feed actually works

Facebook says these new notifications will gradually roll out to the Facebook app for the iPhone and Android in the United States. It hasn’t given a specific time frame.

The change is another indication that Facebook is looking to become more of a personal assistant and not just a social network. For example, the company announced in August that it had started testing a new artificial intelligence -based service called M inside its Messenger app. M is a virtual assistant that can complete tasks on your behalf, such as purchasing items and delivering gifts, Facebook Messenger head David Marcus wrote in a Facebook post announcing the service. Facebook hasn’t said whether M will move beyond the testing phase, however.

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