Facebook is introducing a Feed Filter Bar feature that will give you more precise control over your news feed. It basically lets you see posts chronologically - or by most recent, in the order they were posted - by simply toggling away from its usual algorithmic feed.

Technically, the company has offered users the option to sort feeds by “most recent", but it buried it in a settings menu. Facebook also launched a Favourites feature last October that allows users to select up to 30 friends and pages so that Facebook will display posts from them in a separate feed. Now, Favorites and Recents are front and centre - at the top of the news feed in separate tabs.

How Facebook's Feed Filter Bar works

By default, Facebook's news feed uses a process called ranking to show you posts that the social network believes are relevant to you. But Facebook is now rolling out what it calls the Feed Filter Bar. It lets you easily toggle between three different news feed options:

  • Home (or Top Stories): Facebook's algorithmically tuned news feed, where it decides which popular posts to show you first.
  • Favourites: A news feed that shows posts from your "favourite" 30 friends and pages. (Go here to learn how to manage favorites.)
  • Recents: A chronological news feed displaying recent posts shared by your friends and pages, in the order they were posted.

The idea is, with the Feed Filter Bar, you will be able to better explore the content being shared with you by all your friends and pages. For example, to only see recent posts, you can sort your news feed to see your Recent feed. This means that you will see recent posts from the people and pages you follow, but you’ll see their newest posts first. Alternatively, you can see posts from your favourite friends.

Note: Facebook said you can update Favourites at any time. (From the down-facing arrow, go to Settings and Privacy > News Feed Preferences > Manage Favorites. Then, to select a Favourite, click the star icon next to a friend or page.)

When will the Feed Filter Bar roll out?

This Feed Filter Bar launched globally on 31 March 2021 for Facebook’s Android app and will come to the iOS app “in the coming weeks".

It’s unclear if it will be available on the web version of Facebook.

Did the Feed Filter Bar disappear for you?

The Feed Filter Bar will appear for all Facebook users when it rolls out, but if you don’t access it over a seven-day period (by toggling between either the Favourites or Recent tab), it may disappear from your view. To find it, again just swipe up in the news feed and then it’ll reappear.

Want to know more?

Check out Facebook's blog post or support hub for more details.