15 Facebook tricks you indeed need to know

How do you block someone without them knowing? How can you see who has unfriended you? ALL answered.

1. Only talk with the people you want to

Everyone has someone they would rather didn’t see them on Facebook talk. Well, they don’t have to! Just click the Settings wheel at the bottom of Talk, go to ‘Advanced Settings’ and then just add the names of people you do or don’t want to see that you’re available.

Two. How to stop movies from automatically playing

Have you noticed your data being rinsed or your battery being drained quicker than usual? Well, that could well be down to the fact Facebook make movies automatically play when you scroll past them on your Timeline. It might seem like nothing, but all those seconds add up.

Under Settings, go to ‘Movie’ and next to ‘Auto-play Movies’ select ‘Off’. You can still choose to click on a movie and it will play, but you won’t have to play every single movie that you scroll past any more.

Trio. How to make that annoying friend less annoying

Everyone has that Facebook friend who basically spams you with requests to join her on Candy Crush Saga. Er… no thanks.

Aside from some of the more general blocking options (see below), you can actually get truly specific and block app invites. Just go to the ‘Blocking’ section of Settings and and then ‘Block app invites’. Then you just type their name into the box. YAY!

Four. AND stop them from coming up on your feed

You don’t need to Block or Unfriend them, just hover over the drop down on one of their posts that shows up on your feed and select ‘Unfollow’. Bye bye friend who over-shares every single conversation she ever has with her beau.

Five. How to stop everyone eyeing the awful pages you like

If, like us, you go after similar accounts to that of a 12-year-old (Harry Potter, Boo) or a sexually frustrated housewife (Fifty Shades of Grey, George Clooney), you might want to hide these things from your profile so that dude you’ve commenced eyeing doesn’t think you are the kind of person who likes eyeing pictures of nice puppies every day (even if you totally are).

You can actually hide specific topics (movies, music, books, etc) from the ‘About’ section of your page, by clicking on the little pencil symbol next to ‘About’ on your profile. Select ‘Manage Sections’ from the drop down menu, uncheck the things you want to hide and click ‘Save’. BOOM.

[Disclaimer: Any man who is not okay with your Harry Potter obsession is not the right man. Okay?]

6. How to add a nickname

If you’ve got a maiden name or just a nickname that is a gazillion times better than your actual name, you can add this to your account.

Go to your profile and click ‘About’ and then ‘Details About You’. Then, click ‘Add a nickname, a birth name…’ below ‘Other Names’ and select the type of name from the drop down menu next to ‘Name Type’. Come in your other name and then all you have to do is check ‘Display at top of profile’ if you want your other name shown next to your utter name. Just be careful what you pick, yeah?

7. How to control exactly who sees which posts you put up

Sure, some work friends are actually better than real life friends, but others friend request you and unless you want to make your working day significantly more awkward, you don’t indeed have any choice but to accept.

So, while you might be cool with your line manager witnessing your Sunday roast or your visit home, you might be less keen on them watching that movie of you singing toasted karaoke at 3am.

Well, every single post has an option that lets you control who will see it. All you have to do is click the drop down and select ‘Custom-built’ or ‘More Options’. It will then open a fresh window that lets you select exactly who can see it, including a box for ‘Don’t share with’, where you can add the names of specific people you don’t want to see it.

8. You could be missing Facebook Messages

Why? Well, if you’re sent a message from someone who doesn’t have any mutual friends with you, Facebook automatically filters it into the ‘Other’ folder under your messages. So that’s very likely where that love poem that Jamie Dornan sent you has been lost.

9. How to block someone without actually blocking them

Have an ex bf who you don’t want to unfriend but you also don’t want them knowing your biz from now on? You can actually pretty much block someone without them ever realising.

If you go to ‘Timeline and Tagging’ in Settings, there’s a subhead for ‘Who can see things on my timeline?’. By editing this, you can actually permanently stop a specific person (or people) from witnessing what you and/or others post on your timeline.

So, while it will emerge as if you’re still friends, the page they are watching is effectively frozen in time as nothing fresh will come up when they visit your profile. Clever, huh? No longer does your Nan need to see you looking like a tequila-induced mess.

Ten. Orrrrr

You can add someone to your Restricted List. It’s basically the same as blocking someone but without the notification and they are still technically listed as your friend. The only down side is that it will be more visible that you’ve blocked certain content from them, than it will be if you just stir them to an ‘Acquaintance’ or just block specific posts/pictures. Your call…

11. Make Facebook more LOL

You know, if you go to Settings, General and edit your language, you can select Pirate speak, Upside Down and a entire TON of other options. Yaarrrgghh me hearties!

12. How to see who has unfriended you

Do you indeed want to do this to yourself? Okay then. Websites like Sadly Unfriended can display you which of your friends (or former friends) has chosen to basically cut you out of their lives. Ouch.

All you have to do is connect via Facebook using the link on the site and it will bring up your friends list. Then, the next time you visit the site and log in, it will showcase you if anyone has unfriended you since your last visit.

13. How to sort out your friends list Decently

For starters, it’s worth just scrolling through your friend list every few months and asking yourself whether you’re genuinely okay with these people having access to pictures of you on holiday in a swimsuit, posing with your family and talking about work.

The most awkward thing is usually that weird in-between kinda friend that isn’t truly a close friend, but you’d like to stay in touch with (ex-colleagues, school friends, etc).

The easiest thing to do is go on their profile and where it says ‘Friends’ with a tick, click the drop down and select ‘Acquaintances’. This is for friends you don’t need to stay in close touch with and people on your acquaintances list will uncommonly display up in your News Feed.

Plus, when you’re determining who can see your wall or certain posts (as described above), you can just select ‘Friends except Acquaintances’ and ALL of the people listed as Acquaintances won’t see it. Effortless peasy.

14. But what about your BFFs?

If you want to prioritise your best pals and see more of their HILARIOUS antics on your Timeline, just select them as a ‘Close Friend’ and you’ll see more of them in your feed.

15. How to control what is posted on your timeline

Have an annoying relative that posts things ALL the time? Or a friend who just can’t seem to stop tagging you in awful pictures? You can control everything that goes on your wall in one plain step.

In Settings, go to ‘Timeline and Tagging’ and click ‘edit’ next to ‘Review posts that friends tag you in before they emerge on your Timeline?’ and select ‘On’. That way you’ll get a notification every time someone tags you in anything and you can determine whether or not it is posted to your timeline.

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