The social platform's app now allows you to hide some notifications related to groups and other "minor" sections. Here's how to do it
Facebook pulls the brake on notifications: what for years has been one of the most effective tools to continuously bring users to use the app for smartphones, in fact, is now considered one of the causes of the decline in our "digital well-being". It will be possible to hide some of the notifications from the app.
At the moment the feature is coming to the iOS app, but it's only a matter of time before it arrives on Android (it has already arrived to those who have joined the Facebook for Android Beta program). Everything starts from the "Shortcut Bar", the bar of links to groups, events and marketplace recently redesigned by Facebook. Among the settings of the bar we will soon find the one to hide some sections and customize the bar itself in order to make it more adherent to our tastes.
How the new Facebook notifications work
With the updated Facebook app and the new notifications management, just press and hold on one of the icons in the shortcut bar to bring up the context menu. Among the available options is one to remove the icon from the bar altogether, and one to hide the red circles with the number of notifications. However, it's not yet possible to remove the Home icon or the notifications icon (the bell). There is also another procedure, on the new Facebook app for iOS, to achieve the same result: just open the menu with the three dashes and then choose Settings & Privacy > Settings > Shortcuts.
Facebook becomes less invasive?
It's clear that Facebook, for some time now, has been trying to become more essential and less invasive to the daily lives of its users. Numerous studies show that an excess of notifications, and a consequent non-linear interface where you can't spot the really important notifications, are among the main reasons why users decide to uninstall an app.
It won't be the notifications that cause the mass farewell to Facebook, but they certainly could lead the social users (who have an increasingly high average age) to spend less and less time on Facebook. Opening the app and finding fewer notifications, therefore, will increase the "digital well-being" of users but also the economic well-being of Facebook Inc.