Facebook Adds New 'Most Recent' Timeline to Switch to Chronological Posts

[MacRumors]

Facebook today announced a slew of new changes coming to its app on iOS and Android, making it easier for users to turn off the algorithmically-ranked News Feed, and new tools for controlling who can comment on posts.

Facebook previously rolled out a new Favorites timeline, allowing users to specify their favorite friends, family members, and pages, and access their posts in one place. Facebook's now building on that functionality with a new Most Recent mode that will show posts in chronological order instead of based on an algorithm.

The Feed Filter Bar offers easier access to Most Recent too, making it simpler to switch between an algorithmically-ranked News Feed and a feed sorted chronologically with the newest posts first. Android app users can access the Feed Filter Bar when they scroll up on News Feed. The same functionality will be available in the iOS app in the coming weeks. Regardless of how often you use them, you can find Most Recent and Favorites in the Shortcuts menu.

The new mode, or timeline, will be available on iOS in the coming weeks, but is already available on Android. Additionally, Facebook offers tools to turn off political ads, and the ability to "Snooze" a specific page or person to stop seeing their posts.

Other changes coming to the Facebook timeline include the social-media giant offering users more context as to why they may be seeing a specific post. For content labeled "Suggested for You," users can now learn what factors triggered Facebook's algorithm to suggest the post to you. Factors may include past related posts you've engaged with, topics that interest you, or your location.

Related engagement: A post may be suggested for you if other people who interacted with the post also previously interacted with the same group, Page or post as you.

Related topics: If you've recently engaged with a certain topic on Facebook, we may suggest other posts that are related to that topic. For example, if you recently liked or commented on a post from a basketball Page, we could suggest other posts about basketball.

Location: You may see a suggested post based on where you are and what people near you are interacting with on Facebook.

Lastly, following in the footsteps of Twitter, Facebook will now allow users to specify who can comment on their posts. Users can choose to have anyone be able to comment, just friends, or only profiles and pages mentioned in the post.

Article Link: Facebook Adds New 'Most Recent' Timeline to Switch to Chronological Posts

 

[LFC2020]

Scumbook needs to die already 🙄🤦‍♂️ Can’t wait for iOS 14.5 😁

 

[Glideslope]

Too little, too late. Remove the Cancer from all your devices immediately.

 

[TonyC28]

Gee what a groundbreaking idea! It’s almost like people have been asking for that for years. But will it be like before where you select chronological and it eventually switches back to the algorithm on its own?

 

[Bustycat]

Even their ‘Most Recent’ never worked well for me. That’s why I dislike Facebook so much.

 

[breather]

Great!
Now I'll hate Facebook 1% less.

 

[oasis]

I hope they add chrono to Instagram as well

 

[contacos]

I locked myself out a while ago because I no longer have the associated phone number I need for 2factor. I see it as a advantage by now haha haven’t looked back

 

[WLSON]

Hopefully it's a true chronological order and not an algorithm determined chronological order like in the past. These algorithms don't know sh*t about what I want to see.

 

[BuffaloTF]

Oh... the way it used to be... shocking. We're just going to try and hide the engineered posts now and pretend they aren't a spying on your every move.

 

[Michael Scrip]

I have the Chronological Feed bookmarked on my desktop browser.

Though it doesn't matter to me. I still see the same random posts from my friends. I don't really care when something was posted.

If I scroll through my feed in the evening... I won't scroll all the way back to the morning posts. So I'll never see that clever post from 10am.

At least with the algorithmic feed there's a chance I might see it.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Erkinshadow]

Facebook is nothing but adds.

 

[WLSON]

I have the Chronological Feed bookmarked on my desktop browser.

Though it doesn't matter to me. I still see the same random posts from my friends. I don't really care when something was posted.

If I scroll through my feed in the evening... I won't scroll all the way back to the morning posts. So I'll never see that clever post from 10am.

At least with the algorithmic feed there's a chance I might see it.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That's fine, but people who want to should have the option of doing so. That's the issue.

 

[orbital~debris]

Whatevs, Facebook 🥱

 

[BWhaler]

Facebook: so gross.

 

[Michael Scrip]

That's fine, but people who want to should have the option of doing so. That's the issue.

Yep... it will make some people happy.

This solves one of life's great annoyances... only 957,361,652 more to go!

 

[Delta-NC]

Facebook has a weird bug though, every 4th article is some weird post from a friend or someone you know, what on Earth is that about!? What is it, some kind of social network or something!? 🤣 They need to get that sorted and get back to the constant adverts or else why would anyone want to be on Facebook giving them all their personal details!?

 

[newyorksole]

I hope they add chrono to Instagram as well

Agreed, but honestly... there are benefits to both. I wish there was a way to see everything chronologically, but also to have a section that shows posts I may have missed that I’d be interested in with a lot of reactions/likes.

 

[Octopuss]

Yea! More "features" that no-one cares about, and only poor Safari keeps advising that a single page uses 90% resources on any Mac.

 

[alpi123]

Agreed, but honestly... there are benefits to both. I wish there was a way to see everything chronologically, but also to have a section that shows posts I may have missed that I’d be interested in with a lot of reactions/likes.

With the current way IG is, it knows which posts you've already seen (because you've scrolled them) and if you refresh your feed it will hide them and show you what you've missed.

 

[dukeblue219]

Facebook was awesome in 2004 and 2005. It's been trash basically since the news feed was introduced.

 

[adamjackson]

"adds"? More like brings back. I stopped using Facebook before they made the timeline algorithm based or at least before they made that the default option. Most recent was the default.

 

[FaustsHausUK]

They have had Most Recent for years, it just would reset to their Fisher Price Baby’s First Algorithm feed immediately, and then was hidden away as a separate page you had to navigate to. Of all social networks, Facebook in particular (and I include Instagram) do not have the engineering smarts they think they have - Instagram is essentially unusable now: you see five recent posts in between irrelevant sub-Sky Mall ad spam, and then they dump you into their broken recommendations.

 

[baryon]

Uhm, this is how Facebook was in the beginning. Posts were strictly in chronological order, and it all made sense. Then one day they changed it to what basically appears to be "totally random" and I've completely lost track of what the hell is going on. There's no way to know where that post you just saw 2 minutes ago is, and things someone posted 3 weeks ago may very well be at the top, making you think it's new.

Thankfully, when they made this change, I stopped using Facebook for anything other than Messenger.

 

[qoop]

No facebook and no iPhone = simpler better life.