Why Facebook Employees Work On 2G Connections On Tuesdays
Facebook has been constantly working to improve the overall browsing experience of the social platform on the slower Internet connections. Earlier this month, the company has updated its News Feed stories, making the experience on 2G connections better.
Now, Facebook has announced launch of an internal initiative named "2G Tuesdays" that will slow down the speed of internet connections used by their employees, making them better understand the problems related to using of social platform on the slower internet connections prevalent in the emerging market. While announcing the initiative, Product Manager Chris Marra has explained in detail the whole idea behind 2G Tuesdays.
"People are coming online at a fast rate in emerging markets. In most cases, they are doing so on mobile via 2G connections. But on a typical 2G network, it can take several minutes to download a webpage. That doesn't make for a great experience when sharing content with friends and family.
To build for a global audience like ours, we know that we need to design features that work seamlessly even on a 2G network," Marra said.
Under the 2G Tuesdays, the employees will intentionally have to use the slow internet connection for the social platform and other related apps. Particularly, they have the option to opt-in for a slow Internet connection for an hour. The entire initiative is taken to better address the issues in existing and future builds.
Detailing the entire concept, Tom Alison, Director of Engineering (Facebook), told Business Insider, "For that next hour, their experience on Facebook will be very much like the experience that millions of people around the world have on Facebook on a 2G connection. They're going to see the places that we need to improve our product, but they're also going to see the places where we have made a lot of progress."
Facebook is continuously working to improve the user experience and has already highlighted some of innovative technologies like a system that allows the app to work out according to the users' internet connection and then shows News Feed stories accordingly (avoiding videos if a connection is slow) for instance.
Facebook has been constantly working to improve the overall browsing experience of the social platform on the slower Internet connections. Earlier this month, the company has updated its News Feed stories, making the experience on 2G connections better.
Now, Facebook has announced launch of an internal initiative named "2G Tuesdays" that will slow down the speed of internet connections used by their employees, making them better understand the problems related to using of social platform on the slower internet connections prevalent in the emerging market. While announcing the initiative, Product Manager Chris Marra has explained in detail the whole idea behind 2G Tuesdays.
"People are coming online at a fast rate in emerging markets. In most cases, they are doing so on mobile via 2G connections. But on a typical 2G network, it can take several minutes to download a webpage. That doesn't make for a great experience when sharing content with friends and family.
To build for a global audience like ours, we know that we need to design features that work seamlessly even on a 2G network," Marra said.
Under the 2G Tuesdays, the employees will intentionally have to use the slow internet connection for the social platform and other related apps. Particularly, they have the option to opt-in for a slow Internet connection for an hour. The entire initiative is taken to better address the issues in existing and future builds.
Detailing the entire concept, Tom Alison, Director of Engineering (Facebook), told Business Insider, "For that next hour, their experience on Facebook will be very much like the experience that millions of people around the world have on Facebook on a 2G connection. They're going to see the places that we need to improve our product, but they're also going to see the places where we have made a lot of progress."
Facebook is continuously working to improve the user experience and has already highlighted some of innovative technologies like a system that allows the app to work out according to the users' internet connection and then shows News Feed stories accordingly (avoiding videos if a connection is slow) for instance.
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