Post Reply
User avatar
ice
Site Admin
Roblox New Home Layout Test Explained (October 2026): The Avatar Pane, What Opens in It, and What Does Not Change
Quick Summary
  • Roblox started a Home layout experiment on October 23, 2026 for large landscape screens, meaning mostly PC, console, and tablet. The avatar moves into a pane on the right side of Home.
  • Tapping a game or a profile opens its details inside that pane instead of taking over the whole screen, so you stay in the discovery grid. The pane collapses when you want it out of the way.
  • No opt-in is needed. Eligible players see the new layout automatically, based on screen size and ratio.
  • Nothing changes for the recommendation algorithm. Recommended For You is untouched, and Roblox says there is no new ad placement, ad format, or paid feature.
  • The announcement is aimed at creators, but if you play on a big screen you are the one seeing the new Home, so it is worth knowing what to expect.
What is actually being tested
Roblox published the experiment on October 22, 2026 in its Updates and Announcements section, posted by Roblox Staff, and said it starts the following day. The test runs on "larger landscape display devices", which Roblox names as primarily PCs, consoles, and tablets.

The change is one pane. On Home, players see their own avatar in a new pane on the right side of the screen, and the announcement is explicit that no opt-in is required. Roblox's stated reason is to keep avatars visible while people browse, so you can sort out your look before you join a game.

The second half of the change is where details open. When you select a game or a profile, that content opens inside the pane rather than replacing the whole screen. The announcement says players keep their place in the discovery grid and can collapse the pane at any time.

Which devices get it is not a setting you toggle. Roblox says the experiment is applied automatically based on screen size and ratio, and it is focused on large landscape screens across devices. If you share a computer with someone, or switch between a monitor and a laptop, expect the layout to differ between the two.

What does not change
Roblox answered four questions directly, and all four are "no change". Recommended For You works exactly as before. You will not get fewer visits. Studio, the APIs, and your games are untouched. And the layout adds no new ad placement, ad format, or paid feature.

That last point matters more than it reads. A layout change that shifts where things appear can quietly change how much attention each tile gets. Roblox is saying up front that this experiment is not an ad product and not a storefront change. Whether the tile sizes in the screenshot hold up in a wider rollout is a separate question, and it is exactly what the thread is arguing about.

What creators are asking about
The thread moved fast, roughly 28 replies inside the first few hours. A few concerns came up again and again, and they are all things a player can notice too:
  • Standout games. One creator asked how the new layout handles standout games, pointing out that the Recommended For You tiles are resized properly while a standout game can end up cut off at the fourth slot. Less visible art means less exposure.
  • The Continue Playing section. Another asked where it went. If a section you rely on disappears, you notice it immediately.
  • Performance when collapsed. A common worry is whether the avatar pane keeps rendering after you collapse it. If it does, low end machines pay for something they are not looking at.
  • Mobile and VR. Players asked whether the change reaches phones and the VR app, and the answers in the thread were essentially no, not for this experiment.
  • Aesthetic pushback. A fair number of replies were simply that the Home page had too much clutter already, with Continue and Favorites getting harder to find past other rows.
None of these are confirmed defects. They are what the community raised in the first few hours, and Roblox said it would keep evaluating the impact.

Where this sits in the wider app redesign
This is not the first Home change this year. On July 28, 2026, Roblox replaced the mobile home screen with a tabbed bar: Moments, Chat, and Me, plus Build for players in New Zealand. The tabs launched in Canada, New Zealand, and Singapore and roll out globally over the following months.

Moments is a scrollable feed of gameplay clips from friends and selected creators, and every clip has a Join button underneath it. Chat is meant to carry a conversation from the app into a game and back out again. Me merges the avatar editor and your profile into one place.

The new layout test is a different layer. It is about how Home is arranged on a wide screen, not about the tab bar. Both land on the same place, so a player on a big monitor can see the new pane while still using the tabs.

One more change is already behind the scenes and worth knowing about even though it is not about Home. Roblox is moving chat onto native TextChatService systems. Message text stops being readable by game code, the old prefix system is going away in favor of a native user prefix service, and custom chat UIs move to a new TextChannelWindow component. The announcement says you can opt out of the update at any time before March 2027, and from May 2027 the updated TextChatService becomes the only way to have custom chat. The Creator Hub documentation states that starting in May 2027, platform-integrated chat is required for all games and the unsupported APIs are deprecated. This board already has a full guide on that migration, so read it before you touch your chat code.

What you can do right now
If you want to know whether you are in the experiment, the check is simple. Open Roblox on a large landscape screen and look for the avatar pane on the right side of Home. If it is there, you are in.
  1. Try collapsing the pane. If the layout breaks or the pane refuses to hide, that is a real bug and worth reporting.
  2. Open a game from the grid, then back out. Confirm you land back where you were rather than at the top of the list.
  3. Check the Standout Games row if you have one on your Home. If a game tile looks clipped, that is the exact thing creators flagged.
  4. If you are on mobile or a small screen, do not expect the pane. This experiment is large landscape only.
  5. If you build games, re-read your chat code against the migration guide. The chat change is the part that can actually break a live game.
FAQ
How do I turn the new Home layout off?
Roblox says no opt-in is required, and there is no setting to switch it off. The layout applies automatically based on screen size and ratio. Collapsing the pane is the only control offered.

Will this change how my games get recommended?
No. Roblox says the recommendation algorithms are not changing as part of this experiment, and Recommended For You stays the same. What changes is where details open, not which games are recommended.

Will I see the new Home layout on my phone?
Not in this experiment. Roblox frames it around large landscape screens, primarily PC, console, and tablet. Portrait phones and the VR app are not part of this test.

Does the new Home layout add ads?
Roblox says no. The announcement states the layout adds no new placement, ad format, or paid feature.

Is this the same thing as the Moments and Chat tabs?
No. Those are the tab bar from the July 28, 2026 app redesign, which started in Canada, New Zealand, and Singapore. The Home layout test is a separate change to how Home is arranged on a wide screen.

When does the new Home layout launch everywhere?
There is no global launch date. Roblox calls this an experiment and says it will keep evaluating the impact and share updates as it learns more. Treat it as a staged rollout.

Sources
Post Reply

Return to “Roblox Central”