The changes will apply to comments on public posts from Pages and people with a lot of followers, but anyone can opt-in to comment ranking feature through their settings. Facebook will base the rankings on how people interact with the comments, whether they like, react or reply. Users will still be able to moderate comments on their own posts by hiding, deleting or responding as they choose. Facebook will also look for "integrity signals," and if comments violate its standards, the company will remove them.

Facebook isn't the only platform looking to improve conversations. Twitter has led the way with a handful of new features. And Facebook isn't only concerned with comments. Last month it introduced a system to rank videos and prioritize original content. This is yet another attempt to improve the quality of content on the platform, and it probably won't be the last.