Facebook Adds Hide Application Button To Homepage

-Hide Application Icon- As expected, Facebook has just launched an updated version of their feed filters which enables you to stop viewing stories from individual applications. For example in the image to the left, you can choose to block out the Google Reader application from your feed. What I’m not sure about is whether or not hiding an application is just for that individual person for for all instances of that application.

Just yesterday I wrote about how granular feed filters are the future of Facebook’s news feed and this appears to be a step in that direction. For the time time being I believe hiding an application blocks it from all people but it would be nice if we could control this on a more granular level. Also not clear is whether or not you can add an application back to your feed after hiding it.

I will play around with the tool and reach out to Facebook. I’ll then update this post shortly. Thanks to Dan Birdwhistell for first tipping us off about this.

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483461 Comments2009-03-25+23%3A58%3A02Nick+O%27Neill »

Ahh this is so much better!

Comment by Christos Winter — March 25, 2009 @ 4:00 pm
I tested out hiding an application and it hid all updates from the person who used that application and after clicking to show the hidden updates, updates from that person are gone and the application updates didn't come back either.

Comment by Alisha — March 25, 2009 @ 4:06 pm
In fact, it was too much noisy!

Comment by Facebook User — March 25, 2009 @ 4:07 pm
Works well for clearing all the quizes, just have to remember to restore your hidden friend for future feeds.

Comment by Donald Hardy — March 25, 2009 @ 4:10 pm
Hey thanks for the info. I appreciate your blog.

Comment by Tessa — March 25, 2009 @ 4:11 pm
… someone know why I DON'T egt real time News Feed, as announced?… Just before "The Change" I got real time "Live Feed", now it's gone…. Or is it?

Comment by Vasco Pimentel — March 25, 2009 @ 4:30 pm
Curious to see how this pans out… also, I think the New Friend notification moved to the right side?

Comment by Lisa S. Duhamel — March 25, 2009 @ 5:26 pm
Did you want to remove my shared items from Google Reader?

Comment by Jake Spurlock — March 25, 2009 @ 6:20 pm
Whew, glad to hear this!! Um, but how about that Highlight section? It's a waste of great space… would love to seriously edit or having something altogether different!

Comment by Mari Smith — March 25, 2009 @ 10:23 pm
Please quit changing things….just when I get used to the new Facebook….

Comment by Kelly Krueger — March 25, 2009 @ 11:20 pm
I don't see that option. I just have the X on the top right corner of the application stories.

Are they slowly rolling this out? Or is it some kind of bucket test?

I'm really looking forward to a way of hiding all the quiz results…

Comment by António Farin — March 26, 2009 @ 3:46 am
I had it last night but don’t have it today. Looks like they may have rolled the feature back. Perhaps it wasn’t as finely-tuned as they wanted it to be?

Comment by Beau Teague — March 26, 2009 @ 1:17 pm
Hide Applications have been gone most of the day from the x but Hide [Firstname] has continued.

However they just pushed within last few minutes what seems another update to 'hide' on newsfeed (hide firstname) and remove on profile to the style of the new add to list feature when editing friends lists or assigning friendlists when adding a friend.

No visual sign of hide application-name which is the most needed feature which if added could saved them some design swapping with amending attempt 1 to create friend lists and hide applications instead.

Comment by Jamie Ellis — March 26, 2009 @ 4:12 pm
Breaking News: Hide Application might be making a comeback with the latest stories from Mesmo TV having a hide MesmoTV option (yay!!)

Comment by Jamie Ellis — March 26, 2009 @ 4:39 pm
Question: I hid a friend from my Newsfeed so I wouldn't have to page through dozens of quiz and application results every day. How do I restore this hidden friend in the future? I don't see any "unhide" buttons anywhere.

Thanks!

Comment by Laura Hann — August 10, 2009 @ 2:54 pm
Please help: I can't find the hide button or relevant help instructions, at all.

Comment by Ellen Soeteber — August 27, 2009 @ 2:19 pm
this feature is cool… did not notice this before (or they are still rolling it back and forth ) .. found out that hidden feeds can be enabled- click on "Edit Options" at the end of home page, after all the feeds.

Now seems like they have two levels of hiding options: a)feeds from friends and b)feeds from apps

Seems working fine.. my BW and screen real estate are saved

Comment by Facebook User — September 3, 2009 @ 2:10 am
has any one worked out how to unhide a application? looked all over the place still none the wiser. thank you

Comment by nadine — October 24, 2009 @ 3:39 am
unhide a application:

‘edit options’ on bottom of page
‘applications’ tab

scroll down the list of hidden apps and click ‘add to news feed’

Comment by me — October 27, 2009 @ 5:48 pm
I don't want to see who has added a friend and who they are, nor do they want to see what friends I have added. Without mucking things up:

How do I NOT have list of people being added as friends each day? I don't want to lose seeing everything else. Just don't care who is adding whom as a friend!

Thanks,

Dee

Comment by dee Simon — November 7, 2009 @ 5:55 pm
This was working fine for me until today–Hide apps seems to be gone!! I can only hide a person again!

Comment by Deise — November 20, 2009 @ 9:05 pm
Have just clicked hide next to a live feed item i have only just posted and ALL my live feed comments are now hidden. How do I undo this so I can share stuff on the live feed wall?? HELP PLEASE

Comment by tonia kaine — November 21, 2009 @ 12:04 am
Ok ….

I want to unhide an application and if you go to the edit options it does not give you the option of unhiding or hiding applications. only hiding people.

How do I get my application back?

Comment by Deborah — November 22, 2009 @ 7:14 pm
I accidentally hit the "hide" option on an application I continually use .. I need to "unhide" this application but can't find a way to do this .. PLEASE HELP.

Comment by marleen — November 23, 2009 @ 7:59 am
I accidentally hit the hide button on an application that I need. How do I get it back

Comment by Debi — November 25, 2009 @ 4:49 am
This no longer works. It will not hide apps. If I refresh my page they come back!

Comment by Ricky Ten Sleep — November 28, 2009 @ 4:48 pm
hid my farmville app from homepage on accident how do i unhide an app tried almost everything please help

Comment by lori — November 29, 2009 @ 1:34 pm
To unhide an application, scroll to the bottom of your homepage. There's a blue box at the bottom that says "Older Posts Edit Options". Click Edit Options, it pops up a box. In the box, choose Applications. Find the application. Click "Add to News Feed". Close the box. Enjoy.

Comment by B — November 30, 2009 @ 12:47 pm
How do I "unhide" an application?

Comment by Ginger Estepp — December 1, 2009 @ 4:05 pm
Ok everybody, I was having the same problem, but I think I've figured it out. All the help files were telling me to go to the bottom of the page where you see "Older Posts" and then click on "Edit Options". The problem is, the window that popped up would only show me FRIENDS to unhide, not applications. So long story short, at the top left side of the home page where you see a list of your applications, I clicked on one of my other applications (I think it was Christmas Card or something like that). Once the new page opened of news feed for that application, THEN I clicked on edit options at the bottom of the page, and THEN a window popped up that gave me the option to unhide friends AND applications. And then I was able to add Farmville back to my news feed. So for me, clicking on edit options on my home page didn't work. I had to be in the news feed of another application before clicking on edit options worked. Hope this helps someone!!

Comment by Rachael Kirk — December 4, 2009 @ 12:25 pm
Thanks Rachel.. its help for new edit option feature

Comment by Dhanie — December 5, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
They no longer have the option in the dropdown to hide the app, it just hides the person themselves! I go to my list and that person is in my block list.

What happened to "Hide this application" option?

Comment by elizabeth Chubbuck — December 7, 2009 @ 6:03 pm
Thank you Rachel for letting us know we need to be on an application page and then click Edit Options to unhide. But… mine is blank where it says: The following streams are hidden from your News Feed. Click "Add to News Feed" to see their posts again.

Comment by Kindpeacho — December 10, 2009 @ 11:16 am
I found another way to unhide applications you accidentally hid.

I've tried the above but got a blank page…

When i went to the actual application page like Farmville link is: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=1...

On the left below the Farmville Icon is REMOVE BLOCK FOR APPLICATION, then you click that and you're back in business.

Do this for other applications as well.

Good luck – hope I helped

- Kindpeacho

Comment by Kindpeacho — December 10, 2009 @ 11:22 am
Thanks a lot Rachael Kirk. Your advice worked! I finally restored some applications in the news feed.

Comment by Marius — December 10, 2009 @ 11:28 pm
Thanks a ZILLION Rachael Kirk! It finally work!

Comment by Doreen Choo — December 11, 2009 @ 1:39 pm
Thank you very much Rachael Kirk! Finally after a lot of browsing, I found the right one! It works! Great!!!

Comment by Sheryll — December 15, 2009 @ 2:52 pm
i had to block the app then un block it to get my feeds back but thanks for the info…it was doing my head in

Comment by Facebook User — December 17, 2009 @ 4:08 am
How can Un-hide the applicantion again?

Comment by Mostafa German — January 21, 2010 @ 4:15 am
to UNHIDE an application, you go to "see more" on the top left, then click on ANY application. THEN you go to edit options and click on applications. you CANNOT do this on just a regular newsfeed.

Comment by katie — January 24, 2010 @ 6:07 am
I have a psycho friend who makes inappropriate comments …I want to hide her on Facebook because if I de-friend or block her she will flip out. If I hide her will others still be able to see her posts on my page or is she "hid" from everybody. I hope she is "hid" from everybody.

Comment by Sarah — January 27, 2010 @ 1:00 pm
Had some rude or ugly comments posted by others on my page. I didn't think to remove them and pushed Hide instead. How can I undo – Hide? I don't want to loose friends, because of their uglyness. Please help.

Comment by Julia Spies — February 4, 2010 @ 8:55 am
I know I'm a little late to the game on this post, but I was so frustrated when I couldn't reinstate my application (Farmville) news feed from friends. Apparently I hid it at some point and wasn't getting any news when my friends published. Thank you so so so much for this post.

I didn't have any other applications, so the "news feed for application" technique mentioned above didn't apply for me. I actually had to go to the farmville link mentioned my Kkindpeach and block the app, then go to my privacy settings and unblock the app. wahla… farmville feeds again. whew!

Comment by Facebook User — February 19, 2010 @ 5:52 pm
I've tried "older posts" & "edit options" to get my farmville feed back. Neither of them give me an option to get it back. Please help.

Comment by Debbie Wilson — February 21, 2010 @ 5:24 pm
THANK YOU “facebook user” I tried everything listed above and only made things worse. I finally got farmville back after trying your option. For Debbie, go to your account and privacy settings then applications – this should work for you.

Comment by Frustrated hiden application — February 24, 2010 @ 10:22 am
TY kindpeacho your way worked where none others did. I was getting my FV feeds in seconds!

Comment by lucky06 — February 25, 2010 @ 7:29 pm
What worked for me to unblock was to make sure that my home page news feed was set on "top news" and not "most recent". Application unblocks only showed when on "top news".

Comment by Rosslyn — March 12, 2010 @ 12:56 pm
hi friend scan anyone help me coz i hide my friend feed for farm villa i try all those but still i cant find resent fort of my friends about Farm villa so what i can do plz plz help me

I TRY AL: TEHSE

Kindpeacho – December 10th, 2009 at 3:22 pm

I found another way to unhide applications you accidentally hid.

I’ve tried the above but got a blank page…

When i went to the actual application page like Farmville link is: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=1...

On the left below the Farmville Icon is REMOVE BLOCK FOR APPLICATION, then you click that and you’re back in business.

Do this for other applications as well.

but that is not working

even not this work for me plzzzzzzzzzzz

Ok everybody, I was having the same problem, but I think I’ve figured it out. All the help files were telling me to go to the bottom of the page where you see “Older Posts” and then click on “Edit Options”. The problem is, the window that popped up would only show me FRIENDS to unhide, not applications. So long story short, at the top left side of the home page where you see a list of your applications, I clicked on one of my other applications (I think it was Christmas Card or something like that). Once the new page opened of news feed for that application, THEN I clicked on edit options at the bottom of the page, and THEN a window popped up that gave me the option to unhide friends AND applications. And then I was able to add Farmville back to my news feed. So for me, clicking on edit options on my home page didn’t work. I had to be in the news feed of another application before clicking on edit options worked. Hope this helps someone!!

HELP ME

Comment by K A M L I — May 13, 2010 @ 9:47 am
Can a person tell if you hide them instead of deleting them.

Comment by ach — May 26, 2010 @ 12:31 pm
I want to TOTALLY remove the words APPLICATION and GIFTS from the left hand side of Facebook – they remained hidden for only a short while following the inept privacy changes

I am more and more being pulled away from Facebook

Comment by Pete — June 3, 2010 @ 11:41 am
From the Facebook FAQs (this worked for me):
Navigate to the News Feed page and make sure that you are looking at the Top News option (this option can be changed at the top of your home page).

So, Not the “most recent” news feed, this just lists your friends – but the “TOP NEWS” feed.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the “Edit Options” link. Select the “Applications” tab and click on the “Add to News Feed” button beside any third party application that you would like to add back to your home page.
/help/?faq=16975

Comment by Debbie — June 10, 2010 @ 2:35 pm
Any ideas on how to Hide Gowalla. It is NOT an option like on most apps. thx!

Comment by ba — September 7, 2010 @ 12:05 pm
same happened to me,no idea how to fix this..grrr!

Comment by sazanomi — October 21, 2010 @ 8:12 am
If you hide a friend, do your posts become hidden from their wall, or can they see still see you?

Comment by lgc — November 29, 2010 @ 11:53 pm
thanks for tutorial. Love it, simple and effective

Comment by kenichifc — December 14, 2010 @ 7:50 am
Each day I delete many unwanted post and pics etc from News Feed, ( home page ) however when I ck my home page within 5 or 10 minutes all the hidden line items are all back again.It always happens without fail.!!! Sometimes hidden line items come back in "double" form. When I click hide, I want it to stay that way..why are the comming back onto my News Feed (home page )….Please tell me what to do. FYI I have no problems hiding and un-hiding my friends…it works fine..????
Roy

Comment by Roy Freake — January 20, 2011 @ 6:19 pm
Whenever I click the X and remove a posting from News Feed it does not stay removed. After a few minutes when I leave and then go back to News Feed, all the postings I removed ( as garbage postings ) are all back on my page again. Sometimes a single posting that was removed comes back twice ( 2 of the same posting ), but not often. When I remove a posting from my home page I want it gone FOREVER. It takes a lot of time removing the same lot of postings 5 or 6 times a day. WHY DO THEY COME BACK AFTER I REMOVE THEM???? ( I am not talking about removing the Friend/Person and all their postings, which works just find when I hide them ) HELP PLEASE< THIS IS MY SECOND REQUEST !!!

Comment by Roy Freake — January 22, 2011 @ 11:26 pm
Debi, Many people do what you do alot of times and the application is very simple to get back. Just go to the search bar on the top of your facebook page, then type in the application's name that you have hiden and it should show up… If this doesnt work then go under account on the upper right hand side and click privacy settings. A screen of what is hidden and what is shown is shown there. Right under that screen go to the left and it says "APPS AND WEBSITES". Click edit settings and a screen of your apps and groups pop up. Click edit settings again but this time the one next to the screen on the upper right hand side. Don't go to the very top of the page, only the box in the middle of the screen. Once you do that you should be able to edit all of your apps and groups. If this does not work then contact jacob bussiere on facebook. My profile picture is a picture of a cat.

– Jacob

Comment by jacob — February 25, 2011 @ 8:59 am
can you tell me how to hide applications' icons/buttons on the left side of my homepage?

Comment by ricky — May 20, 2011 @ 4:40 am
How do u restore your hidden friend's for future feeds?

Comment by Justin — May 24, 2011 @ 5:54 pm
I think all the engineers are sending notes to each other. I complained about the same problem, still no answer.

Comment by Robert Dutton — September 24, 2011 @ 9:39 pm