Facebook is still the most preferred social media platform to connect with friends and family. However, the constant alerts whenever someone posts on the platform can disturb and irritate you. You’d think of disabling the notifications entirely, but wouldn’t want to miss out on important ones. However, it’s natural to wonder why is Facebook sending you notifications whenever someone adds a new post. Here’s why you get notifications when someone posts on Facebook and the tips to stop the behavior.
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Notification Behavior on Facebook
By default, Facebook enables notifications for all activities on the platform. For example, you receive push notifications for comments, likes, and reactions on your posts, reminders, friend requests, birthdays, events, marketplace, fundraisers, events, pages, and more. For some activities, you also receive notifications on your registered phone number and email address.
If some of your friends are active on the platform, you may receive notifications when they update their status or share a photo. While receiving these alerts is useful at times, frequent notifications throughout the day can waste your work hours.
Fortunately, Facebook lets you tweak notifications settings on your phone and web. Let’s start with mobile apps and move to the desktop.
Stop Getting Notifications When Someone Posts on Facebook
The default notifications on Facebook can bombard you with constant alerts on phone. That may tempt you to turn off notifications entirely. But, before you miss important notifications from other apps, use the steps below to stop getting notifications about your friends’ activities on Facebook.
Facebook for iOS
1. Launch Facebook app on iPhone and go to Menu option at the bottom-right corner.
2. Expand Settings & Privacy select Settings and scroll down choose to Notifications.
3. Select Updates from friends.
4. Disable the Allow notifications on Facebook toggle.
After that, you won’t receive notifications whenever someone posts on Facebook. If you use Facebook on an iPad, the steps are almost identical.
Facebook for Android
Android supports notification channels, and unlike iOS, you don’t need to head to Facebook settings to change notification settings. You can do the same from the app info menu. Follow the steps below to make tweaks.
1. Long-press on the Facebook app icon and open the info menu.
2. Tap Notifications.
3. Tap Updates from friends. Disable the Show notifications toggle.
Since the option is integrated into the Android OS, you can also make other tweaks. For instance, you can mute updates from friends, change the notification sound, disable vibration, and more. These options are available for every Facebook notification channel.
The usual method to change or tweak Facebook notifications is available through app settings, too. Let’s quickly go through them.
1. Launch the Facebook app and tap the menu icon at the top-right corner.
2. Expand Settings & privacy, select Settings from the drop-down, and scroll down to choose Notifications.
3. Select Updates from friends. Disable the option from the following menu.
The steps are similar for Facebook app on Android tablets.
Facebook for Web
Facebook has a feature-rich web version that comes in handy when you spend long hours on the desktop. However, if you have enabled notifications for Facebook on the web, you may receive notifications when someone posts on the platform. Go through the steps below to stop the behavior.
1. Open Facebook in the web browser and click on your profile picture in the top-right corner.
2. Expand Settings & privacy. Select Settings.
3. Select Notifications under the Preferences menu.
4. Expand Updates from friends.
5. Disable the Allow notifications on Facebook toggle.
Receive Notifications From Specific Friends on Facebook
The steps above completely turn off notifications for your friends’ activities. However, to enable alerts for someone on Facebook, add them to the Closed friends list.
First, make sure to enable notifications for Updates for friends (check the steps above to revert your decision) and go through the steps below.
1. Open Facebook on your phone and go to your friend’s profile.
2. Tap Friends and select Edit Friend Lists.
3. Tap Close friends and hit Done.
Repeat the same for other friends from whom you want to receive notifications when you share something on Facebook. You also have the option to share posts and updates with close friends only.
If you use Facebook on the web, follow the steps below to create a Closed friends list.
1. Visit Facebook on the web and open your friend’s profile.
2. Select Friends and click Edit Friend List.
3. Click the radio button beside Close friends.
Repeat the same for other friends, and you are good to go.
Manage Your Facebook Notifications
While Facebook enables all notifications by default, it’s good to see the company offering multiple options to tweak them based on your preferences. What are you waiting for? Follow the steps above and disable alerts from annoying friends on Facebook.