Facebook adds new ‘most recent’ timeline to switch to chronological posts

Facebook today announced a series of new changes coming to its app on iOS and Android, making it easier for users to turn off the algorithmically categorized news feed and new tools to control who can comment on posts.

Facebook previously rolled out a new favorites timeline, allowing users to specify their favorite friends, family, and pages, and access their posts in one place. Facebook is now building on this feature with a new Most Recent mode that will display posts in chronological order instead of relying on an algorithm.

The feed filter bar also provides easier access to the most recent, making it easier to switch between an algorithmically sorted news feed and a chronologically sorted feed with the most recent posts first. Android app users can access the feed filter bar when scrolling through the news feed. The same functionality will be available in the iOS app in the coming weeks. No matter how often you use them, you can find the 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. In addition, Facebook offers tools to disable political ads and the ability to “put on hold” a specific page or person to no longer see their posts.

Other upcoming changes to Facebook’s timeline include the social media giant giving users more context on why they might see a specific post. For content titled “Suggested for You”, users can now see the factors that prompted Facebook’s algorithm to suggest the post to you. Factors can include past related posts that you have interacted with, topics that interest you, or your location.

Associated engagement: A post may be suggested to you if other people who interacted with the post have also interacted with the same group, page, or post as you before.

Related Topics: If you have recently touched on a certain topic on Facebook, we may suggest other articles related to that topic. For example, if you recently liked or commented on a basketball page post, we might suggest other basketball posts for you.

Location: You can see a suggested post based on your location and people close to you with whom you interact on Facebook.

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