Stop videos from auto-playing

That food recipe video begins to play as soon as the page loads or those sounds from “five things you are doing wrong in the bed and on the sofa” fill your office when you scroll your FB feed. We are not judging you. We are simply saying, stop wasting data while scrolling the news feed. Go to app settings > auto-play and select “never auto-play videos” or “on Wi-Fi connections only”.

After popping it

It’s a morbid thought but... who controls one’s page after he or she dies? Any user can appoint a “legacy contact”. The person’s powers will be limited to running a memorial page, pinning posts to one’s profile and responding to friend requests. But the person will not have access to one’s messaging history. Visit account settings > general > manage account.

Where were you yesterday or…?

Your phone will track your movements if you have switched on “location history”. This means, your snooping, tech-savvy parents may just find out your whereabouts! How to stop it? Account settings > location > location services. You will be transported to the “Google location history” setting on your phone.

Download your FB history

Somehow our early Facebook posts are the most embarrassing. Before hitting the delete button, download it. You can, in fact, download your entire history from the social network. This has to be done on your desktop. Account settings > general > download a copy of your Facebook data.

Find public Wi-Fi

This is a new feature that was first introduced in a few countries and later expanded to all users. This is a handy feature when you are in a terrible signal area or you simply want to save mobile data. It also gives off the business establishments (like opening hours) as well as the names of the Wi-Fi networks. The function works for companies that state they offer a free Wi-Fi connection on their Facebook page. Visit account settings > location > find Wi-Fi and find Wi-Fi notifications.

See more posts from your friends

The feed is full of inspiration quotes and posts from pages you have liked. What about those from your “close” friends? Change the way your feed appears either by labelling your favourite contacts as “close friends” and “acquaintances”, or click on the “following” option on your friend’s page and choose “see first” (alternatively, you can unfollow the person, which means he or she would remain friends but you won’t get updates on your feed).

You can still poke

Remember the most annoying feature from the early Facebook days? That’s right, poke. The seemingly forgotten feature can be accessed by going to a friend’s FB page and clicking on the “…” button on the desktop, or the vertical equivalent of the same on the app. A drop-down menu appears and so does “poke”!

MESSENGER MODE

1. Adding GIFs livens up conversations between friends. On Messenger, click on the ‘+’ icon and then choose the GIF option.
2. If you are in a large group on Messenger and need a response from a member, just key in the ‘@’ sign and select the name. The person will immediately receive a notification.
3. Like WhatsApp, you can use Messenger on your desktop. Visit Messenger.com and log in.
4. If you realise your friend is nearby, you can send your current location. Click on the ‘+’ sign, tap on ‘Location’ and then ‘Share Live Location for 60 min’.
5. Emojis... one can never have enough of them. Can the size of an emoji be changed? Push down an emoji until it reaches the right size. Release the emoji and it will be sent.
6. A few months ago, Messenger added the ‘Your Day’ feature, which is similar to Instagram Stories. In other words, you can share photos and videos of events taking place throughout your day. Tap on the ‘+’ next to ‘Your Day’ and share selfies, photos and videos that you like. These stay active for 24 hours.
7. Sometimes you get added to groups that don’t make sense. To exit, scroll to the bottom of the list of members and choose ‘Leave Group’. Members will get a message saying you have left the group.

Some of the options suggested above may differ depending on the Facebook app version you are using, the platform or if you look for them on your desktop