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Facebook, for better or worse, is a part of daily life for many of us. While it’s great for staying connected, some features make the experience more frustrating than it needs to be. But there’s good news—you can regain some control over your experience. Here’s a look at some of the worst features on Facebook and how you can fix them to improve your experience.
1 Overwhelming Notifications
Facebook loves to notify you about everything—new friend requests, comments on posts, birthdays, and even events happening miles away that you have no interest in. While staying informed is nice, the barrage of notifications can quickly get out of hand.
Thankfully, you can manage your Facebook notifications in your settings. There, you can disable unnecessary notifications, like event reminders or video uploads, so you only get pinged for things that matter to you.
2 A Cluttered News Feed With Irrelevant Posts
A chaotic news feed is one of the most annoying parts of using Facebook. You log in expecting to see updates from your close friends, but instead, it’s a jumble of (supposedly viral) posts from accounts and pages you don’t even follow.
To regain some control, consider using features that let you customize your feed. You can mute or hide posts from specific accounts and pages that don’t add value to your experience.
If you want to see only content from your friends, check out the Feeds feature. Simply tap the Menu hamburger icon, select Feeds, and choose the Friends tab. This will take you to a feed filled with content from your friends only.
3 Tagging in Posts Without Your Approval
Getting tagged in a post or photo without your consent can feel like an invasion of privacy. You might find yourself staring at a picture on your timeline that you would prefer to keep out of the spotlight, or worse, a post you would rather not be associated with at all. It’s frustrating to see someone else’s content become a part of your profile without your say.
To curb this, head to your settings and adjust your tagging options. Go to Settings and Privacy > Settings > Profile and Tagging. Here, you can enable the feature that allows you to review posts you’re tagged in before they appear on your profile. This simple tweak helps you maintain control over what gets shared with your friends, allowing you to keep unwanted or embarrassing content off your timeline.
4 Message Requests
It can be unsettling when strangers or distant acquaintances send you unsolicited messages. Whether it’s a friend-of-a-friend trying to strike up a conversation or a spammy account, your inbox can quickly become cluttered with unwanted messages.
You can take steps to limit these interruptions. The best practice is to be cautious about accepting friend requests from strangers. If you don’t know the person, don’t add them.
To stop message requests, click on your profile icon and select Settings & privacy > Settings. In the tab on the left, select the option for How people can find and contact you. Scroll down and select Don't receive requests for the options under How you get message requests.
5 Auto-Playing Videos That Eat Up Data
Auto-playing videos are one of the most irritating features on social media platforms. You’re casually scrolling through your feed when, suddenly, a video starts playing—often with sound—without you even tapping on it. Not only is this disruptive, but it can also chew through your data, especially if you’re not connected to Wi-Fi.
Thankfully, Facebook offers a way to turn this feature off. To do so, head to your settings, navigate to Settings & privacy, then Media, and choose to either never autoplay videos or only have them play when connected to Wi-Fi. This simple change can save both your data and your patience, making your scrolling experience much smoother.
6 "People You May Know" Suggestions
Facebook’s “People You May Know” feature seems useful in theory, but in practice, it often just suggests random people—many of whom you have no interest in connecting with. Even worse, it can suggest people you’d rather avoid.
Unfortunately, there’s no permanent way to turn this feature off completely. However, you can hide people you may know suggestions on Facebook as they appear. By consistently hiding them, Facebook will eventually reduce the frequency of these suggestions. While not a perfect fix, it does help minimize the number of unwanted connections you’re exposed to.
7 Threads Post Suggestions
As if the cluttered feed wasn’t enough, Threads posts have now made their way onto social media platforms like Facebook. These posts, often from people you don’t follow or featuring content you’re not interested in, can make your experience feel even more disconnected from the people and pages you care about. Instead of seeing updates from your circle, you’re greeted with random posts from Threads users.
The most effective way to avoid this is to not create a Threads account, or if you have one, consider deleting it. If that’s not an option, you can hide individual posts as they appear. Click the three dots on any suggested post and select Hide. Over time, Facebook should start showing fewer Threads posts in your feed.
8 Reels Suggestions
Following in Instagram’s footsteps, Facebook has integrated Reels into its platform, aggressively pushing these short-form video posts into your feed. While some people enjoy the quick entertainment, others find the constant stream of Reels intrusive, especially when they come from random or irrelevant accounts.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to turn off Reels entirely. However, much like with Threads posts, you can hide them individually. When the Reels tab pops up, click the three dots and select Hide. Over time, this should reduce the number of Reels in your feed.
Social media’s evolution has introduced more frustrations, from excessive notifications to irrelevant content in your feed. While some features can’t be completely disabled, tweaking your settings—whether it’s managing notifications or hiding unwanted posts—helps you filter out the noise and reclaim a better experience.