15 Hidden Facebook Features Only Power Users Know About

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15 Hidden Facebook Features Only Power Users Know About ~ Hidden Facebook Features

Despite its numerous flaws, Facebook remains the primary digital public square today. Politicians and journalists choose Twitter, while Generation Z prefers Snapchat and TikTok, and Facebook fills in the gaps.

The impact of a few years of controversies on Facebook’s bottom line has been minimal. According to Statista, the United States and Canada achieved their best-ever quarter for ad revenue in Q4 2020. The number of monthly active users on the site in the United States and Canada continues to rise.

Despite its best efforts, Facebook is not synonymous with “the internet,” but its website and apps provide a plethora of customizing opportunities.

Continue reading to bring out your inner social networking guru.

Hidden Facebook Features

Listen to Music in the Spotify Mini player ~ Hidden Facebook Features

Spotify Premium subscribers in some areas may now listen to songs and podcasts directly from the Facebook app on iOS and Android. Spotify Free users can utilize the new function in shuffle mode, but it will be ad-supported. You may press play and listen to music you or a friend shared to Facebook from the Spotify app while navigating around Facebook.

The Inbox You Don’t Even Know About ~ Hidden Facebook Features

If you’ve been a Facebook user for a long, you’re probably aware that there’s a folder full of unread messages that you weren’t aware of: the Message Requests folder.

Facebook sends all messages from people you’re not friends with to this folder. It may be a group of Nigerian spammers or old high school flings reaching out. What are the chances? There’s just one way to know!

Navigate to Facebook.com and click the Messenger symbol (the word bubble with the lightning bolt) at the top of your Facebook home screen to see your messages.

To go full screen, click See All in Messenger at the bottom. Select Message Requests from the three-dot ellipsis menu symbol. Then you’ll start receiving messages from people you don’t know.

There may be a See Spam entry that lists those who attempted to contact you but were likely removed from the service after being reported by others. Delete them joyfully.

See All the Friends You Requested ~ Hidden Facebook Features

What about all of the people you invited to be your friend but who declined or removed your invitation? This is something that Facebook keeps track of. For a list of people that despise you, go to facebook.com/friends/requests. Or maybe they just don’t use Facebook as much as they used to. Both, most likely.

See Who’s Snooping in Your Account ~ Hidden Facebook Features

Do you want to know if someone has accessed your Facebook account without your knowledge? Look for Where You’re Logged In under Settings > Security and Login.

All of your active Facebook log-ins from desktop and mobile devices, as well as across apps, will be found here (like the Facebook app vs. the Messenger app). It will (generally) provide information on the user’s current location, browser, and device.

If something doesn’t look right, log out of individual devices (click the three-dot menu > Log Out) or all devices at once (click the three-dot menu > Log Out) (scroll to the bottom and click Log Out Of All Sessions).

This comes in helpful if you forget to log out of a friend’s laptop or a public computer.

Adding some extra levels of security to your Facebook account is a good idea. Under Settings > Security and Login, you’ll find three sensible things you can do to protect yourself:

1. Make Two-Factor Authentication available. It’s a good idea to use two-factor authentication on all of your accounts. That means if you want to log into your account on a different device, you’ll need your password and a number created by an authenticator app or texted to you.

2. Receive notifications when unrecognized logins occur. Facebook can notify you if someone signs into your account using an unidentified device or browser. (If you use a VPN, the warnings about yourself may appear if the VPN server is located in a different state or country.) That is the cost of being vigilant.

3. If you become locked out, make a list of 3-5 reliable contacts. Trusted Contacts are Facebook pals who can assist you in regaining access to your account securely.

If you forget your password or misplace your mobile device—or if someone malicious breaks into your home and locks you out. If you no longer trust your trusted contacts, you can always alter them later.

Restrict ‘Friends’ From Seeing Posts ~ Hidden Facebook Features

Everyone, friends, friends of friends, or just specified people can see your Facebook posts. Restrict access to “friends” you don’t want to snoop on all of your posts. Go to the profile page of the buddy whose access you’d like to limit.

Select Edit Friends List > Restricted from the gray Friends button (three-dot menu > Friends on mobile). Unless it’s a public post, that buddy will no longer see anything you post.

By going to facebook.com/bookmarks/lists and clicking Restricted, you can see who is on this list.

Unfollow People Without Unfriending ~ Hidden Facebook Features

In principle, all of your Facebook friends should be people you enjoy and want to hear from, but this isn’t always the case. Defriending your aunt or a chatty high school classmate, on the other hand, would be impolite.

Unfollow them to take the easy way out. Although their postings won’t appear in your News Feed, you’ll still be “friends” on Facebook. Select the ellipsis and click “Unfollow [friend]” to remove them from your News Feed. They won’t be notified, so you can scroll without interruption.

Later, click to Settings & Privacy > News Feed Preferences > Reconnect to reactivate your virtual friendship.

Save Posts for Later ~ Hidden Facebook Features

It’s nearly impossible to go back and retrieve something you skimmed over during a recent scroll on Facebook. Save that delicious-looking recipe or interesting article for later. Select Save link or Save to watch later from the drop-down menu by tapping the ellipsis menu in the top right corner of any article.

The link will be saved in your Saved folder as a result of this action. What happened to your Saved folder? You won’t be able to see it unless you save something. On the desktop, a purple Saved ribbon shows in the left-hand favorites bar; on mobile, touch the hamburger menu.

Saved Posts do not expire, but they may be deleted by the original poster. If you save a lot of things, you can organize them by grouping them into Collections.

See How Much Time You Spend on Facebook ~Hidden Facebook Features

Do you worry that you’re wasting too much time on Facebook? You can now monitor how much time you spend on the site each day on the mobile app.

Go to the hamburger menu and select Settings & Privacy > Your Facebook Time. The bar chart under See Time will show you how many minutes each day you spent on the app in the last week; scroll left to see Daytime vs. Nighttime usage, as well as total visits.

Want a copy of everything you’ve ever posted on Facebook for posterity or to save before you terminate your account? Every single post, image, video, message, and chat thread (not to mention all the settings you probably aren’t aware of)?

Go to Facebook Information > Settings > Your Facebook Information. Your data is available for download.

From there, follow the instructions to determine what you want to download, how long you want it to take, and what format the data should be delivered in.

Choose the option to create a file. It may take a bit for Facebook to gather your information, depending on how much you have saved on your account; you’ll be notified when it’s ready to download.

On Hidden Facebook Features, everyone will perish. Eventually. Facebook allows you to name a legacy contact who will administer your account after you pass away, anticipating this inescapable reality. Your legacy contact can edit your profile and cover photo, make a pinned post for your profile, and reply to new friend requests that arrive after you’ve passed away (in case your final image is you in an ironic SpongeBob Halloween costume). They can even download your Facebook information, except for any messages you’ve written or received.

Recommended by Our Editors ~Hidden Facebook Features

You can even request that your account be erased after you pass away.

Unless you turn off the option, Facebook will send you an annual reminder to check your legacy contact. To pick or edit your legacy contact, go to Settings > General > Memorialization Settings > Edit on desktop or Settings > Personal Information > Manage Account on mobile. If you’re a legacy contact for someone who’s died, complete this Memorialization Request form to inform Facebook about the person and request that their account is commemorated.

Although Facebook’s business model is based on supplying marketers with precise information on its users’ preferences, you have the power to manage your ad experience.

Go to Settings > Ads. The first tab is Advertisers, which you can conceal one by one starting with Advertisers You’ve Seen Most Recently. You may see a list of all the advertising you’ve blocked, as well as a list of the ads you’ve clicked if you wish to block them right now.

You’ll find a handful that is tailored to you if you go to Ad Topics. You can do so by clicking See Fewer, but you can’t completely disable them.

The Ad Settings page is the most useful since it allows you to limit the amount of data Facebook collects from partners, the categories it uses on you, and the businesses that have you in their audience list for targeting. You can also set a limit on the number of Facebook-created ads that appear on other websites.

These are all limited controls, but they’re better than nothing. The hardest part is that you have to go through each one individually.

Apps Can Be Axed in Bulk ~ Hidden Facebook Features

Apps and websites that require Facebook to log in can be deleted in masse. You’ll find tabs for Active, Expired, and Removed apps/sites under Settings > Apps & Websites. Log out after selecting a group. It’s best to use an email address and password when you return to that site/service in the future; better yet, use a password manager. Turn Off Autoplay Videos

Do you despise it when a video starts playing on its own? Get rid of that “feature.” Set Auto-Play Videos to Off in Settings > Videos. Stat. You will not be sorry. When you disable auto-play on your desktop, it also disables it on your mobile devices, and vice versa.

Stop With the Birthdays ~ Hidden Facebook Features

Every morning, Facebook will notify you which of your friends is commemorating their arrival on this planet. Stop receiving reminders if you despise birthdays in general. Go to Notifications > Settings. Many things may be disabled here, including highlights of what you did on that particular day in the past, activities of your closest friends, the creation of new local Pages, and so on.

The option to turn off the birthdays is not far down the page.

Inside Facebook Messenger, There Are Some Cool Tricks

As our top tips and techniques demonstrate, Messenger is much more than just chat software.

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