Changing tack: Facebook unveils major app redesign with focus on groups

acebook Inc. unveiled a redesign that focuses on the Groups feature of its main social network, doubling down on a successful but controversial part of its namesake app — and another sign that Facebook is moving toward more private, intimate communication.

The changes, announced Tuesday at the annual F8 conference in San Jose, California, make Groups a bigger part of the Facebook user experience. A new design for the mobile app highlights the Groups that users have joined, and now shows a personalized feed of activity across all the groups people are part of in a special tab. The service long known as the “big blue app” is also getting a color change — it will be framed in white instead of the company’s traditional hue.

The changes are Facebook’s biggest in five years, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said onstage at F8. The company has been pushing more aggressively into groups for the past two years as people shy away from posting things publicly and look for more intimate ways to connect with friends and family. Fast-growing meme and community groups have been a recent bright spot for Facebook amid a series of privacy scandals, and the company is also shifting its focus to deal with its own projections that people are spending less time on its namesake site.