This New Facebook Feature Might Be A Game Changer

Big news, social media enthusiasts: A “Hide From Your Timeline” feature for Facebook is currently being tested which allows you to post statuses directly to the News Feed, bypassing the Timeline section completely, As longtime users of the social network will know, the abilities both to hide certain posts from your Timeline and select which friends you do and don't want access to your media have been around for a while; but now, Facebook might be letting you post to the News Feed without the items ever showing up on your Timeline at all. It's a pretty big move, is it not?

We don't have a ton of details right now, but a Facebook spokesperson tells Bustle via email:

The Timeline on your profile is a great place to see a comprehensive history of your Facebook posts. We've heard feedback that sometimes, you may want to share a post with friends and family via News Feed and not have that post be displayed on your Timeline. The ability to hide a post from your Timeline already exists, and today we're testing a feature that would make it even easier to control where your posts live by giving you the option to publish a post only to News Feed and not to your Timeline.

At present, the “Hide From Your Timeline” feature is available on Facebook on the Web only, according to CNET. It’s visible when you go to write a status update and see a new check box for “Hide From Your Timeline.” I can confirm that if you check this box, your status update will become visible on your News Feed and will not appear on your Timeline.

However, if you’re on your own News Feed, the “Hide From Your Timeline” box isn’t listed; however, the options to share to your own Timeline, a friend's Timeline, etc. are still available.

CNET also reports that those posts that you've published to the News Feed while hiding from your own Timeline still show up in search, and they also still get listed along with the rest of your Facebook activity on the Your Posts page that is visible only to you; so, no huge changes there.

The new feature is somewhat similar to the intimacy of other social media apps like Twitter and Snapchat, the latter of which allows your to choose exactly which friends see your latest updates or add them to a public “Story.”

If made globally accessible for all users, the new function could come as welcome change for those of us with a squillion friends who are looking for ways to enhance the user experience and make the site feel a little less impersonal (without culling the squillion, because, ergh, time).The new function might also be useful for firing off a quick question to a select few of your Facebook friends, or ensuring one of those last minute status updates doesn’t go quite as public as they could. Here’s hoping this new Facebook trick will make the site easier to communicate with each other and go some way to protecting our privacy.

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