Is anyone truly happy with their Facebook news feed? Facebook tries to display the posts you might want to see first. For most users, that’s not how they want to view status updates. If you’re tired of trying to find the things you want in your news feed, try these five customization options. They’re extremely easy to setup and you just might fall in love with your Facebook news feed again.
Sort By Most Recent
One of the biggest complaints users had about the Top Stories news feed change is they’re missing out on more recent updates and getting confused by the random order. Though it’s not the most obvious setting, you can still sort your news feed by Most Recent. It’s easy to switch back and forth between the two views.
From the news feed page, locate News Feed in the left column. For most users, it’s the first link under your profile image. Click the arrow beside News Feed. Choose Most Recent. You’ll then see all status updates sorted by date. If you want to switch back, repeat the process and choose Top Stories.
Edit Friends And Pages
If you’re tired of seeing updates from certain people or want to see more from others, you can edit how frequently you see updates from specific users and pages. This change takes longer, especially if you need to make changes on multiple users. I suggest scrolling through your news feed and making changes as you discover posts.
When you find a user you want to edit, click the arrow to the right of their name. You can stop seeing certain types of posts by selecting I Don’t Want To See This. If you don’t want any of their updates on your news feed, click Unfollow. If you want to stop seeing shared posts or game notifications, choose Hide All From. This option only appears if the post is shared from another person, page or game.
If you’re not seeing any updates from certain users or pages, visit their profile and click Follow in their cover photo. Without this checked, you may not see any updates in your news feed. This is especially important for pages.
Make News Feed Better
You can let Facebook try to customize your news feed for you by answering a few simple questions. Click the arrow on any status update and choose Make News Feed Better. You’ll then see different types of Facebook posts. Rate each post based on the statement above it. Facebook will then use your answers to alter your news feed to show you posts that may be more important to you.
Hide Without Unfollowing
If you don’t want to unfollow someone, you can hide their posts. It’s honestly not much different than unfollowing, but it’s quicker to change it back later. Simply, click the arrow beside a post and choose Hide. The option used to be available on all posts, but now it’s only appearing on shared posts so you can hide any posts from specific users or pages that your friends post.
To quickly unhide any posts you’ve hidden, click the gear icon beside News Feed in the left column. Click Edit Settings. Click the X beside any names, pages or apps you want to unhide. Click Save.
Create Lists
While this doesn’t technically customize your news feed, lists let you create your own news feed. See my previous article about creating lists to create lists that show just the friends and/or pages you want to see. After you’re done and you’ve added your lists to the Favorites section in the left column, all you have to do is click the name of your list to view it instead of your news feed.
Currently, Facebook doesn’t offer a way to set your list as your default view, but all it takes is a second to click the link and view your own personalized news feed.
Even though Facebook keeps changing the news feed, you still have options to change how it looks. If you really want the most customized news feed possible, give all of these options a try. You may want to set aside a few hours, especially if you have hundreds of friends, pages and apps to deal with.
