Even if you check Facebook daily, you may not have picked up on a few of the social network's less well-known features. Here are 10 of the best Facebook features you've been missing out on.
Facebook has a number of hidden features on its site Photo: AP
1. Create an interest list
Interest lists are an optional way to organise the content you are interested
in on Facebook. You can create your own interest lists based on the things
you care about, or follow other people's lists. For example, you could
create a 'Top Indie Bands' list that features bands' Pages and public
updates from band members.
To create your own interest list, go to https://www.facebook.com/bookmarks/interests
and click the 'Add Interests' button. The click 'Create List' and search for
the people or Pages you want to add to your list, or use the categories on
the left to browse. After you've selected the things you want to include,
you can pick a name for your list and select a privacy setting. Choose
'Public' if you want others to be able to subscribe to the list you've
created.
When you follow a list, you'll be able to see updates from that list by
clicking the arrow at the top right of your homepage and then clicking on
the list name. You'll see a feed of the posts and activity from the people
and Pages on that list. You may also see highlights from this list in your
main news feed.
2. View Friendship history
Look back at all the Facebook interactions you've had with a particular friend
by going to their profile page, clicking in the arrow in the top right
corner and selecting 'See Friendship' from the dropdown menu. If you’ve
added a relationship to your timeline, you can go to https://www.facebook.com/us
to see the friendship page for you and the person you’re in a relationship
with.
You can also see a friendship page for two of your friends by going to a
friendship page, clicking 'More' (under the cover photo) and typing in the
names of two of your friends.
3. Check your 'Other' messages
Just as Facebook highlights stories in your news feed that it thinks are of
greater importance to you, it also sorts your messages. The main Messages
folder contains messages from your friends and their friends. All other
messages will go into an 'Other' folder where you can look at them
separately.
This Other folder isn't visible until you view your main Messages folder, and
Facebook doesn't send you a notification when a new message arrives in this
folder. You might therefore have hundreds of unread messages that Facebook
has filed in your Other inbox.
4. View Photos the old way
If you don't like the way that photos appear in a pop-out black box when you
click on them, you can simply revert to the preview Facebook photo display
by pressing F5 on your keyboard. This allows you to flick through the photos
in an album in classic view.
5. Prevent tagged posts from automatically displaying on your Timeline
Facebook gives you the option to manually approve or dismiss tags that people
add to your posts. When you turn it on, anytime someone tags a photo or post
you made, that tag won't appear until you approve it.
To turn on tag review, click on the arrow at the top right of any Facebook
page and select 'Settings' In the left-hand column. Then click Timeline and
Tagging and look for the setting 'Who can add things to my timeline?' and
click 'Edit' next to the option 'Review posts friends tag you in before they
appear on your timeline' to turn this on.
It should be noted that this only controls what's allowed on your timeline.
Posts you're tagged in still appear in search, news feed and other places on
Facebook
6. Turn your profile upside down
When the Pirate English language option appeared on Facebook several years ago
it attracted a fair bit of attention. It changes, for example, 'What's on
your mind?' to 'What be troublin' ye?' and 'Share' to 'Divvy spoils t' all
ye mateys'.
Now you can also choose 'Upside Down' as your version of English, which upends
all your interface text. Just click on the arrow at the top right of any
Facebook page and change 'language' to 'English (Upside Down)'.
7. Download your Facebook data
There is a feature in the General Account Settings that allows you to download
information available to you in your account such as your timeline info,
posts you have shared, messages, photos and more. Additionally, it includes
information that is not available simply by logging into your account, like
the ads you have clicked on, data like the IP addresses that are logged when
you log into or out of Facebook, and more.
Click the arrow at the top right of any Facebook page and choose Settings. At
the bottom of the General Account Settings in an option to "Download a
copy of your Facebook data". Unfortunately, there is no way to
individually select which data you would like to download when you download
your Facebook info, so you will have to download your file in its entirety.
8. Activity log
Your Facebook activity log is a list of your posts and activity, from today
back to the very beginning. You’ll also see stories and photos you’ve been
tagged in, as well as the connections you’ve made – like when you liked a
Page or added someone as a friend. You can also use it to review and manage
what you share on Facebook.
You can get to your activity log by clicking the arrow at the top right of any
Facebook page and choosing Settings, followed by 'Privacy'. Next to 'Who can
see my stuff?' click 'Use Activity Log'.
This can be used to quickly review your photos, and photos you're tagged in,
that are shared with Public, and also review photos that you have hidden on
your timeline.
9. Send a private message from a traditional email account
Send a message to someone on Facebook from your traditional email account
(Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail etc) using their @facebook.com email address. This
is in the format username@facebook.com. The emails will be delivered to your
Facebook Messages folder
When you send messages to external email addresses, your emails will be
formatted to look like Facebook messages, including your name, your profile
picture and your message.
10. Turn off mobile push notifications
Sometimes getting endless notifications on your mobile phone about Facebook
updates is just irritating. Push notifications can be turned on or off from
your Facebook app or the settings on your smartphone.
From your Android, iPhone or iPad go to Privacy Settings > Notifications >
Mobile Push and un-tick the things you don't want to get notifications
about. It is not currently possible to adjust push notifications from mobile
browsers or from feature phones.
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