Below are some Facebook tweaks you can use for a private and clutter-free account. You’ve probably read and heard of them. But sometimes, it takes a little reminder and a nudge to seriously make the necessary changes and teach us what to do and how to do it.
1. Tweak your groups notifications and settings
Cut the list of your groups. Delete if you must or leave the group(s), especially the inactive ones. To access the list, click “More” and it will direct you to the “Browse Groups” page. The group tab is divided into five: suggested, friends, local, invites, and your active groups. You may mark the group as your favorite, tweak the notification settings of each group, depending on the type of news and updates you’d like to receive and read.
2. Unfollow or hide a frequent poster
Do you have friends who frequently post updates of breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon snacks, dinner, and good night selfies? Sometimes, the closest people are the ones who can actually irritate us. While they enjoy the freedom to post their whereabouts and whatnots, you also have the freedom to see other updates of other friends. The solution? Click “Unfollow” or “Hide all from” and you won’t be seeing updates. Or click “I don’t want to see this” for that specific update.
3. Stop notifications on tagged status
Sometimes, Facebook can be more complex than you can imagine. Based on my experience, out of my greatest intention to comment in one of my friend’s status (my name is tagged), I received notifications from that status after a few minutes because his or her friend commented, too, liked the picture or whatsoever. What to do? Click the “Stop Notifications” below the caption of the image or status update. This is doable for a Facebook post. However, in case a friend posts an image via Instagram, and then you liked it or commented on it, and his or her friend did the same, you won’t see the “Stop Notifications” option. Quite tricky, eh?
4. Advance settings on chat – turn on for selected users only
You can choose whom you want to share with your online status in chat box by clicking the advance settings on chat via Options, which is located on the lower right of the screen.
5. Change your timeline and tagging settings
Do you have friends who use their personal accounts instead of a fan page to sell items and always tag your name without your permission? I do. The solution? “Unfriend” or change tagging settings – if you choose the latter, go to private settings to tone down these tagged updates and notifications. Facebook allows you to review photos before they are published on your timeline, directing you to “Timeline Review” page.
6. Visit filtered Friends group timeline
Let’s face it … the News Feed is cluttered with the sponsored ads – on the right side – and stories on top or between friend’s updates. Visiting the filtered “Friends” timeline shows real-time updates of people closest to you.
When you have a custom friends group, you can control what updates to share with a specific group of friends, too.
7. Messenger app alternative
When it comes to mobile, one of the changes Facebook made was its standalone Messenger app. Users, however, were forced to install the Messenger app to access messages instead of quick access in the chat box within the Facebook app. Privacy-concerned users weren’t comfortable with this “change” because the app will access the phone’s contacts, pictures, calendar and other settings, with the permission that allows the company to edit, receive, and send SMS. Other users’ response was, “No, thank you!”
The solution? No need to install the Messenger. Log in to m.facebook.com and access your chat box for sending messages. If you’re using an iOS device, create a shortcut icon using the “Add to Home Screen” on Safari browser. Alternatively, for Android users, you can switch your Facebook and Messenger app to the Tinfoil app, which is a wrapper for Facebook’s mobile site.
8. “Search” button on Activity log
Want to review an update you posted several weeks ago? The Activity log page has a search option to help you track that post – just enter a word, keyword, or phrase to find it.
9. Hashtag is for search, por favor!
Add “#” with the keyword for filtered search results on topics and news you would like to read in your News Feed.
10. “View as” your profile
You can view your profile to see how your timeline looks in public or you may choose a specific person to check how he or she sees your account. To access this, just click the button with three dots beside “View Activity Log” and choose “View As.”
Bonus: Want a clean slate? Ditch your account and create a new one and forget everything I wrote and make new friends. What are some of the Facebook tips and tweaks you’ve used?
