How to Convert Classic Facebook Page to New Page Experience

With the New Year comes a new look for Facebook Pages. This massive platform is rolling out what it calls a “new pages experience” to over 60 million “classic” pages. Tests are currently taking place on the Facebook mobile app, while anyone can try out the feature manually but there is no clear launch date for these features across the platform.

While many features will remain the same, there are a number of changes that may affect how you operate your Agency Page(s) on Facebook. See below for how familiar New Pages will be, but with a few important differences.

Yes, you heard us right, this is already starting to show up for some Facebook pages. This change, though, is part of something larger called the New Pages Experience. It may sound intimidating, but after reading our article you will know that there is nothing to worry about.

What does it mean to implement the new pages experiment?

1. The new Pages trial was launched in October 2020 for select categories of Pages, most of whom are professionals. It will be rolled out to all pages in the coming months.
2. The initial idea behind trying out the new pages is to provide more tools and capabilities for professionals to manage their presence on the platform in a more secure way.
3. It is always possible to go back to the classic page, although there are some consequences.
4. Fans on a Facebook Page will no longer be available in the New Pages experience.
5. If you use third-party apps to analyze your Facebook stats, some inconsistencies may occur right after you make the switch (particularly with fan count).

What is the New Pages Experience?

Let’s start by explaining the real-world experience of the new pages.

As Facebook claims, the new Pages experience is:

It seems that trying out the new pages is not for everyone. This is partially true because it is currently only available to a select group of people. However, as reported by Facebook representatives, the new Pages experience will be rolled out to all Pages in the coming months of 2021.

This is what the new pages experience looks like:

Keep reading to discover the differences between these two things.

Who and when can switch to trying the new pages?

The new Pages experiment has been active since October 2, 2020 (however, the official statement was published on January 6, 2021) and is now only available to selected categories of Facebook Pages, most of whom are professionals, for example: politicians, actors, dancers, artists or athletes.

You can see the full list of Pages that can now switch to the new Pages experience here.

Once you switch to the new pages experience, it is always possible to go back to the classic page. Although it is always possible, you should be aware of the consequences of such a move. These are the most important ones:

• If you have created ad campaigns and they are still active, they will be discontinued without the ability to restart.
• All content created using the new pages experience (including posts, images, and videos) will be lost.
• Obviously, you will also lose access to all the features available only from the new pages experience, eg simplified insights.

Note that all data and assets that cannot be transferred between the new pages experience and the classic page can be downloaded. Here you will find instructions on how to do this.

Differences between the new Pages experience and the classic Facebook Page

Although at this point not every Page owner can switch to trying the new Pages, you may still be wondering why Facebook introduced it and what the benefits are. Over time, the new Pages experience will be rolled out to all page categories, so it’s good to know what to expect.

At the moment, the main differences are:

• Updated page layout (shown above)
• Simplified, more actionable insights (including the new metrics usage page)
• More related notifications
• New Q&A format (maybe something similar to what we know from Instagram Stories)
• Two new types of permissions: Full Control or Partial Access
• The new Page news feed that will be separated from the profile (including easy switching between them) to help you interact as a public figure with others.

Some features are now disabled (most likely only temporarily) and unavailable:

• Reply to a comment in a private message if you use the API to do so
• Work features, eg jobs
• Reviews and check-ins
• Some posting tools, for example scheduling posts or pinned posts
• Some Page roles, eg Moderator and Editor (only the two new roles listed above will be available).

How to convert a classic page to new page experience

Although the feature is not available to everyone and does not appear officially in the settings of the pages, but we got at the Captain Informatics a link to the experimental feature, which you can try and convert the Facebook page to the new format with these simple steps:

1. Copy the link below and replace ” YourPageID ” with your page’s identifier, which is often your username or ID numbers.

https://www.facebook.com/YourPageID/?modal=page_transition_flow¬if_id¬if_t=aymt_entry_to_profile_plus_onboarding_tip_notif&ref=notif

2. Open the link in a web browser after logging in to your Facebook account and follow the instructions shown in the images below.

Once you click refresh and use the page now the page will be converted to the new look and you don’t have to do anything else.

Important notes:

1. You must open the link from a computer or laptop.
2. If you do not have a computer, you can open the link from any mobile Internet browser, but in the computer mode.
3. The conversion may be rejected if there are page quality issues or the page doesn’t follow the Facebook Pages standards.

If your page is not eligible for the Try New Pages feature, you will see an error like the image below:

Let’s try out the new pages experience on FB

That’s it so far. It’s just the beginning of trying out the new Pages, and many Facebook Pages haven’t converted to them yet. We expect more information and opinions to emerge as more Pages experience rolls out.

FAQ