Facebook May Roll Out A New Feature That Lets You Get Rid Of Those Annoying Notifications

Are you tired of seeing those red dots appearing on the Watch, Groups, and other tabs in the Facebook app? Well, that’s about to change, because the social giant is currently doing tests on a toggle for turning off the red notification dots on the app’s homescreen. This may save you from having to open each feature to extinguish the maddening flame in the feature tabs, which means you can focus on what you actually open the app for.

Talking to TechCrunch, a spokesperson of the company said this is related to the work they are doing with their well-being team. They are also thinking about the way people spend time in their app and want to ensure that time is well spent. Many people can’t stand the unread notifications, and Facebook took advantage of this psychological quirk. However, it seems to have realized that using this strategy can result in an adverse effect and discourage users from opening the app.

Jane Manchun Wong was the first to spot the prototype form of Facebook Notification Dots, which was hidden in the code of the Android app earlier this summer. Now, it looks like the feature is under public tests. And Facebook has also confirmed that the global test recently started for a number of users on both Android and iOS devices. The test offers people new ways to have more control over the notifications they get in the app.

The social giant has plans to give users more options to personalize notifications so that they won’t miss other important things.  The company also thought about using a snooze option, along with an on/of switch which is the least confusion. If the Notification works well and doesn’t reduce Facebook usage, the Notifications may come to every user.

How to turn off the red dots

If you’re among those who have access to the test, you can turn off the notification dots by tapping on the three-line Menu/More tab, then open Settings & Privacy > Settings > Notifications > Notification Dots. Here, tap on ‘Choose which shortcuts will show you notifications dots’ where you will find options for Menu, Groups, Profile, and Videos On Watch.

However, users won’t be able to disable dots for Notifications, apparently, as this is the main way you can get alerted about activities around your profile and content.

Now, if the user wants changes regarding which activities will be alerted in the Notifications tab, go to More/Menu tab, tap on Settings & Privacy, then select Settings. In this section, choose Notifications, click on Notification Settings, and select Mobile. Here, there is a list of the recent notifications, which the user can turn off. Also in the Notification Settings page, users can turn off sound for notifications, reduce the frequency of alerts from On This Day, as well as select what notifications coming to email or SMS.

However, users may get confused as there is another menu that they can access from the settings icon in the Notifications tab. This is where they can mute notifications temporarily or permanently and choose where to get each type of notifications. Of course, the two spaces should connect with each other, in whatever way.

Next, Facebook may let users batch notifications rather than being constantly pestered. It’s possible that the company will allow users to opt for an occasional notification digest, such as once a day or for every 10 alerts.

A year ago, the social giant talked about the rollout of a Time Well Spent dashboard to the Facebook and Instagram app, which indicated how much time the user spent on the app and could remind them to stop at a certain limit of minutes, but the feature was not really a hit. All in all, if Facebook wants its app to stay in our phones, it should stop trying to force us in their way of interests.