Tech

How To Avoid Seeing Your Exes On Facebook Without Unfriending Them

Snooze is about to become your new best friend.

by Syeda Khaula Saad
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
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From your ex fling's cheesy engagement photos to coronavirus conspiracy theories that your uncle keeps sharing, your Facebook News Feed can quickly become a strange and confusing place. One of the downsides of having social media accounts for a long time is that you end up losing control of what your feed looks like. You may even sign on sometimes and realize your feed is filled with posts from people you met at a party in college and never spoke to again. And if you don't use it consistently, you've probably missed out on new tools and features you'd actually want to take advantage of. Luckily, there are a few Facebook News Feed hacks that can help you see photos and posts from the friends, family, and pages you care about the most — and you won't have to Unfriend anyone and feel awkward about it for years to come.

Read on to find out about six Facebook News Feed features you might not have known about. From Snoozing people who post status updates every five minutes to adding Close Friends, just like you can on Instagram, to prioritizing the updates you see first when you sign on, there are plenty of ways to hack a better feed.

Unfollow

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Sometimes, people are really annoying on social media. And when they're consistently irritating, you might just want to stop seeing their posts completely. But going as far as to Unfriend them may seem too harsh. If that's the case, you can always Unfollow them, which means they stay on your Friends list, but you just don't have to see their updates in your News Feed — and they won't ever know.

To Unfollow someone, you can tap the three horizontal dots to the right of their post to access the menu. Here, you'll see "Unfollow" in the list. Tap this and you won't have to see their new posts any longer.

Snooze

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If adding someone to your Unfollow list seems too dramatic for you, you could always just Snooze them. By using the Snooze feature, you can take someone's posts off your timeline for a certain amount of time — and then they automatically reappear afterward. The Snooze feature is in the same drop-down menu as Unfollow. You can even adjust how long you want to snooze someone for. Whether it's a day, a week, or a month, you can control when you see their posts again.

See Fewer Posts

Maybe you can't decide between Unfollowing or Snoozing someone and you just need a balanced, in-between option. Well, luckily Facebook has that, too. The app gives you the ability to "See Fewer Posts" from someone. To do this, you just have to tap Hide Post in the menu of the post. Without you having to adjust anything else, Facebook will take in that data and ensure that you don't see as many posts similar to the one you hid.

Reconnect

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If you've already Unfollowed someone but miss their presence on your News Feed, you always have the option to Reconnect with them (or Follow them again) without them ever knowing. To do this, go to your News Feed Preferences. Tap on the menu tab on your Facebook app, aka the three horizontal lines stacked on top of each other. From here, scroll down to your Settings, and then scroll all the way down to News Feed Settings. Under this, you can tap News Feed Preferences. Then, tap Reconnect with people you unfollowed. This will show you a menu of everyone you've unfollowed and by simply tapping on their photo, you can Follow them once again.

Close Friends

Just like Instagram, Facebook lets you set a Close Friends list. This list helps you post things that only certain people see and also get notifications when people closest to you post. To add someone to your Close Friends list, go to their Facebook Profile and menu icon next to their name. Then, tap on the Friends option and then hit Edit Friends List. Select Close Friends and voila — they'll officially be added to your Close Friends list. They won't know if they've been added, so you can add anyone you want to keep tabs on without feeling creepy.

Prioritize Who To See First

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There might be some people on Facebook that you'd prefer to prioritize. Whether it's a best friend, cousin, or a crush, or even your favorite TV network, you might just want to put them to the top of your News Feed. Luckily, the app allows you to Prioritize Who To See First. You can do this by going into your News Feed Preferences, tapping Prioritize Who To See First, and then tapping accounts you want to add to this setting. You won't get a notification like you would with a Close Friends list, but you will be able to see posts from these people as soon as you open up Facebook.

Whether you're trying to see more of someone or see way, way less, Facebook has features meant to help you do exactly that.

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