For most of us, Facebook is part of our daily lives – but don’t you sometimes wish it would just go away? Short of deactivating your account and the Facebook app, here are a few simple ways to make Facebook less intrusive and tailor it more to your needs, so you can go about your day without being attached to your phone.
1. Disable auto video playing
Facebook’s Auto-Play Videos makes videos play as soon as you scroll to them on your Newsfeed. And nothing chews through your precious data quite like video streaming. To turn off auto-play:
Open the Facebook App > tap the Menu icon, bottom right, represented by three horizontal lines > scroll down and tap Settings > Account Settings > Videos and Photos > Tap Never Auto-play Videos
2. Turn on Tag Review
What did you get up to on the weekend? If you’re concerned about incriminating photos popping up on Facebook, or you just want to control who tags you, then Tag Review is for you. Every time someone tags you in a photo, video or other post, you’ll receive a notification and the chance to preview the post. You can then accept or reject the tag. To turn on Tag Review:
Open the Facebook App > tap the Menu icon, bottom right, represented by three horizontal lines > scroll down and tap Settings > Account Settings > Timeline and Tagging > tap Review tags … and then toggle the switch On.
3. Start a group message
Instead of having individual private message threads with friends, why not try a group chat? Group chats are a good way for friends to stay in touch, share stories and photos and plan coffee-dates. You can choose any number of friends to invite to a group chat. You can also have multiple group chats happening at once.
Open the Facebook App > navigate to Messages at the bottom of the screen > tap Groups, bottom of the screen > tap Create and select your friends’ names from the list. You can also name the group and add a photo to make things interesting.
4. Mute Facebook Messenger notifications
So you’ve started a group chat with your friends and now they’re driving you crazy? One of your dear friends can’t seem to get enough of it because they’re sending message after message, causing your phone to ‘ding’ like it’s having a fit. Instead of putting your phone on silent, try muting the messages for a period of time instead. To mute messages:
Open the Facebook App > navigate to Messages at the bottom of the screen > tap the name of the person or group at the top of the screen > tap Notifications and select how long you want to mute notifications.
Related articles:
Facebook cheat sheet
Disable Facebook’s video auto-play
Five handy Facebook features
