Facebook adding “unfollow” button so you don’t have to unfriend

Facebook’s new unfollow feature

We all know someone on Facebook who shares a bit too much about their personal life, but unfriending them risks hurting their feelings. Currently, you can “hide all” updates from your friends, so the “unfollow” button is much the same, with new phrasing.

Users will not be alerted when you unfollow them, making this the perfect way to filter out unwanted posts without going to the trouble of unfriending, or blocking someone that is annoying you.

If you have used the “hide all” function before, the “unfollow” button will function in exactly the same way. A Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch, “the goal of this change is to help people curate their News Feed and see more of the content they care about.”

How to use the new unfollow feature

To use this feature, simply hover on any post in your Facebook newsfeed, and click on the drop-down arrow in the upper-right corner. You can choose to hide just one post or all of them by “unfollowing” the poster. Also, when you visit a friend’s page, you will be able to see who they are following. Next to the “friends” drop-down box on their cover photo, will be a separate icon that lets you follow or unfollow anyone in your News Feed.

This can be especially helpful for businesses because you can hide someone’s incessant posts without unfriending them and losing a potential customer. Instead of a single person monopolizing your newsfeed, you can remove their content, without removing them. This is also helpful for other businesses and clients you may follow. If your clients asks you to follow them, you certainly can, but if their content starts to clog up your feed, simply “unfollowing” them can keep your relationship in tact, but allow you to have great control over who and what you see when you log in to your Facebook account.

The new feature’s label is in line with other applications like Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter which all use the follow and unfollow feature to manage your social media feeds.