New Facebook features on what you see and who can comment on your posts: Here's how it works

Facebook has rolled out new tools to offer users more control over their News Feed. The Mark Zuckerberg -led social media company has introduced an option that will let users decide on who can comment on each of their public posts. Facebook users also get the option to sort and browse their News Feed using the Feed Filter Bar. How do these new tools work? Are they of any benefit to you? Let’s take a look.

Control over who can comment on your Facebook post

One of the new Facebook features allows users to set up settings that give them control over who can comment on their public posts. The feature is definitely a welcome move. When you make a post public, users who are not your “friends” on Facebook can also share their views on a topic related to the post. Some might misuse the feature and leave comments that would not be acceptable or make the user confirmable. The new tool gives you the control to decide your commenting audience for a given public post by choosing from a menu of options ranging from anyone who can see the post to only the people and Pages you tag.

How to adjust who can comment on your public posts on Facebook?

• Click on the drop-down menu on the top-right corner 
• Select Settings & Privacy, and then select Settings
• Click on Public Posts on the left
• Go to “Who Can Follow Me” and make sure that the Public is selected.
• Click Edit next to Public post comments.
• Here, select who you would want to allow to comment on your public posts. You can choose between Public, Friends, and Friends of Friends.

Control what you see on your Facebook News Feed.

Facebook is also offering new tools to make it easier to sort and browse News Feed. This is in addition to “Favourites” that let you prioritise posts from your Friends and Pages on your News Feed. Users get to select up to 30 friends and Pages as their Favourites and their posts will appear higher in ranked News Feed.

On top of that, Facebook is introducing a new Feed Filter Bar, which is a new menu on the top of the News Feed. It offers easy control to switch between an algorithmically-ranked News Feed and a feed sorted chronologically with the newest posts first.

Android smartphone users can open the Facebook app and access the Feed Filter Bar when they scroll up on News Feed. Currently, the feature is not available on iOS. Facebook has confirmed it will be available to iPhone users in the coming weeks.

In addition to this, Facebook is also being more transparent on why you see certain suggested posts on your News Feed. The social media app has been suggesting posts of various pages and groups that you do not follow but might be interested in. The company said it suggests these posts are suggested based on factors such as post engagement, related topics, and location. 

A suggested post is visible on your News Feed if other people who interacted with the post also previously interacted with the same group, Page or post as you. You are also likely to see a suggested post related to a topic you might have engaged with other users. For example, if you recently liked or commented on a post from a basketball Page, Facebook could suggest other posts about basketball. Lastly, the location. Facebook suggests posts based on where you are and what people near you are interacting with on its platform.

You can, of course, adjust and update what you want to see or share on your News Feed by going to the News Feed Preferences and Privacy Settings within the app.