Facebook are Testing Discreet Notifications

Tech Crunch

Sometimes your friends decide you need to see something on Facebook because it amuses them or it reminds them of you. Some of these things you might not want popping up on your timeline or the comment section may be so saturated that it's difficult to scroll through. Facebook are working on something that might change that experience.

At the moment, if users want to share something with you, then they can tag you in it. When those notifications pop up  it can be kind of fun and you do wonder what they've tagged you in. It's a very public way of letting someone know they'll like something, though. Even a post that is completely innocent can sometimes be awkward if they pop up on your timeline, if your boss sees a joke complaining about working for example. The idea that someone sees something and thinks of you is really great and can make some fun in-jokes, but it is something you have to be careful about.

For some Facebook users in the UK, Canada and France that has changed. When these users are creating a new post, they see an option to notify a few friends about this post. The link has a little megaphone icon next to it so you know what you're looking out for. The link allows you to choose which of your friends to notify and it won't appear on their profile. It's a quiet way to notify friends and makes it easier to encourage conversation as you don't have to go through the masses of other people's comments. Plus this also might encourage people to discuss posts more in Messenger, something Facebook know a lot more people are using rather than the actual app. If you're not tagged and you're just notified and you don't want a visible comment, you can easily discuss the post in a private conversation and no one will know the post was meant for you.

Facebook have confirmed that this test is underway, but they might not roll it out to everyone. This does seem like a useful update, but if enough people don't make use of it, Facebook won't see the point. In a way, it is kind of sad that you'd miss out on seeing people you know tag their friends as sometimes that can provide a source of entertainment on its own. However, not having to see the tags of strangers and the like will be a lot less annoying.

The test is running at the moment so if you can't see it now, you probably won't unless it's rolled out worldwide.

Rosina Brooker

Rosina is a Songbird writer with a degree in Creative Writing. She's trying to focus on her novel on the side but is glad to be playing around with apps and writing about them in the mean time! Follow her @Songbird_Rosina

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