INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Are those red notification dots on your Facebook home screen driving you crazy? Sick of Facebook Marketplace wasting your screen space? Now
you can control what appears in the Facebook app navigation bar thanks to a new option called Shortcut Bar Settings.
Over the weekend
TechCrunch spotted the option to remove certain tabs like Marketplace, Watch, Groups, Events, Profile, Friend Requests, News, Today In,
Gaming and Dating or just silence their notification dots
In response to our inquiry, Facebook confirms that Shortcut Bar Settings is now rolling out to everyone, with most iOS users already
equipped and the rest of Android owners getting it in the next few weeks.
The move could save the sanity and improve the well-being of
people who don&t want their Facebook cluttered with distractions
Users already get important alerts that they could actually control via their Notifications tab
Constant red notification counts on the homescreen are an insidious growth hack, trying to pull in people attention to random Group feeds,
Event wall posts and Marketplace.
&We are rolling out navigation bar controls to make it easier for people to connect with the things they
like and control the notifications they get within the Facebook app,& a Facebook spokesperson tells me.
Back in July 2018, Facebook said it
would start personalizing the navigation bar based on which utilities you use most
But the navigation bar seemed more intent on promoting features Facebook wanted to be popular, like its Craigslist competitor Marketplace,
which I rarely use, rather than its long-standing Events feature, which I access daily.
To use the Shortcut Bar Settings options, tap and
hold on any of the shortcuts in your navigation bar that at the bottom of the Facebook homescreen on iOS and the top on Android
You&ll see a menu pop up letting you remove that tab entirely, or leave it but disable the red notification count overlays
That clears space in your nav bar for a more peaceful experience.
You&ll also now find in the three-line More tab -> Settings - Privacy ->
Settings -> Shortcuts menu the ability to toggle any of the Marketplace, Groups, Events and Pages tabs on or off
Eagle-eyed reverse engineering specialist Jane Manchun Wong spotted that Facebook was prototyping this menu and the Notification Dots
settings menu that now available too.
Instagram to test hiding Like counts in US, which could hurt influencers
A Facebook spokesperson
admits people should have the ability to take a break from notifications within the app
They tell me Facebook wanted to give users more control so they can have access to what relevant to them.
For all of Facebook talk about
well-being, with it trying out hiding Like counts in its app and Instagram (this week starting in the U.S.), there still plenty of
Better batching of Facebook notifications would be a great step, allowing users to get a daily digest of Groups or Events posts rather than
Its Time Well Spent dashboard that counts your minutes on Facebook should also say how many notifications you get of each type, how many you
actually open, and let you disable the most common but useless ones right from there.
If Facebook wants to survive long-term, it can&t piss
off users by trapping them in an anxiety-inducing hellscape of growth hacks that benefit the company
The app has become bloated and cramped with extra features over the last 15 years
Facebook could get away with more aggressive cross-promotion of some of these forgotten features as long as it empowers us to hide what we
hate.
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