Here are five of our favourite Facebook tweaks….
1. Share a post with everyone except one person
This one can come in handy if you’re friends with your boss or colleagues but don’t want them to know just how hard you partied last night. You can post a Facebook update and exclude only certain people from seeing it.
How to do it: Facebook app > start a post > dropdown menu below your name (starts with Friends) > Friends except … > Add all the Friends you (don’t) want.
2. Stop video feeds from playing automatically
Surreptitiously scanning your Facebook news feed during a meeting gets a lot more conspicuous if a video suddenly starts emitting loud sounds of that cute pug you’re following.
Change your settings to prevent such autocratic auto-playing. Not only will this save your sanity, it will save you a lot of data on your phone plan.
How to do it: Facebook app > More > Settings > Account Settings > Videos and Photos > Auto-play > Never Autoplay Videos.
3. Change your relationship status without alerting the universe
Having your heart smashed into a thousand pieces is hard enough without your weird work colleague reaching out about your newly single status. You probably didn’t know you can switch your status without announcing it to everyone in their news feed. (Note: You can also do this with job changes.)
How to do it: Your profile in the app > About > Relationship > small button on bottom left with silhouettes > change to Only Me > switch status to Single (or whatever you like). Changes will not appear in others’ news feeds.
4. Export birthdays into your calendar
One of the most useful parts of Facebook is getting to seem really thoughtful for remembering people’s birthdays, but it can be annoying to have to check it daily just for that. Export birthdays into your calendar to never miss one again.
How to do it (easiest from desktop, not the app): Facebook homepage (not your profile) > Events > scroll down to box on the right that says “You can add your events to Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar or Apple Calendar.” > Birthdays. Copy that link, then open Google Calendar > Other Calendars > click the down arrow > Add by URL > paste the URL.
5. Save articles for later
There are probably a number of interesting articles you see in your feed but don’t have time to read right then, other than those from The Carousel, of course. Facebook has a built-in bookmark feature to help with this.
How to do it: Click the Share button on the article > Save Link. On desktop, your bookmarked articles will stay in the Saved tab on the left; on mobile, in More > Saved.
