Facebook’s latest news feed update has caused quite a stir, acting as a catalyst for both praise and criticism. In cased you’ve missed it, here’s a run-down of the changes directly from our friends at Facebook.
What types of content can appear in News Feed?
In addition to posts from friends and Pages you follow, you’ll see photo tags, friend requests, event updates, group memberships and other activity.
How has News Feed changed?
All of your news is now in one place with the most interesting stories featured at the top. If you haven’t visited Facebook for a while, the first things you’ll see are top photos and status updates posted while you’ve been away. They’re marked with an easy-to-spot blue corner.
If you check Facebook more frequently, you’ll see the most recent stories first. Photos will also be bigger and easier to enjoy while you’re scrolling through.
What is a top story?
Your top stories are stories published since you last checked News Feed that we think you’ll find interesting. They’re marked with a blue corner and may be different depending on how long it’s been since you last visited your News Feed.
We determine whether something is a top story based on lots of factors, including your relationship to the person who posted the story, how many comments and likes it got, what type of story it is, etc. For example, a friend’s status update that might not normally be a top story may become a top story after many other friends comment on it.
If you’ve been away for awhile, you’ll see the top stories that happened since your last visit at the top of News Feed.
We’ve also added a control in the top right of each story where you can mark or unmark as a top story. This will help us improve your News Feed over time. If you see something that isn’t interesting in top stories, hover over the right side of the update in question, click the arrow and click ‘Unmark as top story’ from the menu.
How do I control what I see in my News Feed?
Filter by friend lists
Click the name of one of your lists on the left side of your home page to view only stories by people on the list you’ve selected.
Hide a person or a story type (e.g. a quiz)
Click the drop-down menu that appears when you hover over the top right corner of a story you want to remove from your stream. Then, select an option from the drop-down menu:
- “Hide story” will remove the individual story
- The “Hide all by” and “Unsubscribe from” links will remove the post and prevent all future stories from a person, Page, group, event or app
- “Report story or spam” will remove the post and help keep your News Feed clear of similar stories in the future
Unhide stories from a person, Page, group, event or app
- From your home page, hover your mouse to the left of the left side News Feed menu.
- Select Edit
- A list of people, apps, Pages, and groups you’ve hidden or unsubscribed from will appear in a pop-up box. Click the X next to each one you’d like to remove from this list. Removing someone or something from your list of hidden stories means those stories can appear in your News Feed again.
- Click Save.
How do I add friends, Pages, groups, events or apps back to my News Feed after I hide them?
- From your home page, hover your mouse to the left of the left side News Feed menu.
- Select Edit.
- A list of people, apps, Pages, and groups you’ve hidden or unsubscribed from will appear in a pop-up box. Click the X next to each one you’d like to remove from this list.
- Click Save.
Removing someone or something from your list of hidden stories means those stories can appear in your News Feed again.
What happened to Most Recent?
We’ve combined the Top News and Most Recent stories together in a single News Feed view. If you see top stories first when you load your News Feed, simply scroll down to see the recent stories.
