If you've visited LinkedIn recently, you may have noticed something different about your home feed. LinkedIn is testing a new tab called 'Network' alongside the familiar 'For you' feed, giving members another way to keep up with their professional connections.
The feature is currently being tested in selected markets, although some South African users are already seeing it.
It's a relatively small change to the platform, but one that could make a difference to how we use LinkedIn and interact with our professional connections.
For anyone who has grown tired of scrolling through recommended posts from people they don't know, it's a welcome development.
What's changed on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn has introduced two ways to browse your home feed.
For you is the familiar, algorithm-driven feed. It recommends posts based on your interests, activity and engagement history. This includes updates from your connections, but also content from people and organisations you don't follow, along with sponsored posts.
Network, on the other hand, focuses on updates from your connections and the people you follow.
This means you can spend more time catching up with colleagues, clients, industry contacts and other people in your professional network without having to scroll through as much recommended content.
It doesn't necessarily mean you'll see every post from every connection, or that posts will appear in chronological order. LinkedIn still determines which updates appear in the feed.
Why has LinkedIn introduced the Network tab?
LinkedIn officially announced the new Network feed on 15 October 2026 as part of a broader update aimed at helping members build and maintain professional relationships. You can read the original announcement on LinkedIn's Newsroom.
LinkedIn says the change is intended to help people maintain professional relationships and see more relevant updates from people they already know and trust.
It's an interesting development for a platform that has increasingly relied on algorithms to determine what appears in our feeds.
Recommended content certainly has its place. It helps us discover new people, businesses, industry discussions and ideas that we might otherwise miss.
But there's a downside. The more content a platform recommends, the harder it can become to find updates from the people we actually chose to connect with.
The Network tab offers a way to separate these two experiences.
What does this mean for businesses?
The new Network tab is designed for individual LinkedIn members rather than company pages. It gives people another way to keep up with their professional connections and the individuals they follow.
For businesses managing company pages, the immediate impact is less clear. LinkedIn hasn't confirmed whether posts from followed company pages will appear in the Network feed, or whether the feature will have any effect on organic reach.
However, the change is a reminder that LinkedIn is, first and foremost, a professional networking platform. The people behind a business, including its employees and leadership, play an important role in building relationships and sharing knowledge.
For now, businesses should continue focusing on useful content, relevant industry discussions and encouraging employees to participate in conversations through their own profiles.
Publishing more content isn't necessarily the answer. Publishing content people want to read is far more valuable.
How should you use the two feeds?
There's a place for both.
Use For you when you want to discover new perspectives, find interesting discussions or connect with people outside your existing network.
Switch to Network when you want to catch up with colleagues, clients, business contacts and the people you've chosen to follow.
For anyone using LinkedIn to develop professional relationships, regularly checking the Network feed could be particularly useful. You may discover updates, achievements or conversations from connections that would otherwise have been buried among recommended posts.
Perhaps Facebook should take note
Personally, I'd love to see Facebook introduce something similar.
One of the reasons many of us joined Facebook was to keep up with friends and family. Yet the main feed has become increasingly filled with advertisements, recommended pages and 'Suggested for you' posts from people we've never heard of.
Sometimes it feels as though you have to search for updates from your actual friends.
Facebook does offer ways to view posts from friends separately, but these aren't always immediately obvious when browsing the main feed.
Wouldn't it be better to have a simple choice, right at the top of the page, between recommended content and updates from friends?
LinkedIn's approach shows how a relatively small change to the user experience can give people more control over what they see.
A welcome change
Social media platforms have become very good at showing us content they think we'll find interesting. But sometimes we simply want to hear from the people we've chosen to connect with.
LinkedIn's Network tab is a useful step in that direction.
Whether the Network tab will have any impact on the visibility of company page content remains to be seen. In the meantime, I'm pleased to have another way to catch up with my professional network.
Now, Facebook, how about doing the same?
