Even if you check Facebook daily, you may not have picked up on a few of the social network's less well-known features. Here are 10 of the best Facebook features you've been missing out on.
1. Create an interest list
Interest lists are an optional way to organise the content you are interested in on Facebook. You can create your own interest lists based on the things you care about, or follow other people's lists. For example, you could create a 'Top Indie Bands' list that features bands' Pages and public updates from band members.
To create your own interest list, go to https://www.facebook.com/bookmarks/interests and click the 'Add Interests' button. The click 'Create List' and search for the people or Pages you want to add to your list, or use the categories on the left to browse. After you've selected the things you want to include, you can pick a name for your list and select a privacy setting. Choose 'Public' if you want others to be able to subscribe to the list you've created.
When you follow a list, you'll be able to see updates from that list by clicking the arrow at the top right of your homepage and then clicking on the list name. You'll see a feed of the posts and activity from the people and Pages on that list. You may also see highlights from this list in your main news feed.
2. View Friendship history
Look back at all the Facebook interactions you've had with a particular friend by going to their profile page, clicking in the arrow in the top right corner and selecting 'See Friendship' from the dropdown menu. If you've added a relationship to your timeline, you can go to https://www.facebook.com/us to see the friendship page for you and the person you're in a relationship with.
You can also see a friendship page for two of your friends by going to a friendship page, clicking 'More' (under the cover photo) and typing in the names of two of your friends.
3. Check your 'Other' messages
Just as Facebook highlights stories in your news feed that it thinks are of greater importance to you, it also sorts your messages. The main Messages folder contains messages from your friends and their friends. All other messages will go into an 'Other' folder where you can look at them separately.
This Other folder isn't visible until you view your main Messages folder, and Facebook doesn't send you a notification when a new message arrives in this folder. You might therefore have hundreds of unread messages that Facebook has filed in your Other inbox.
4. View Photos the old way
If you don't like the way that photos appear in a pop-out black box when you click on them, you can simply revert to the preview Facebook photo display by pressing F5 on your keyboard. This allows you to flick through the photos in an album in classic view.
5. Prevent tagged posts from automatically displaying on your Timeline
Facebook gives you the option to manually approve or dismiss tags that people add to your posts. When you turn it on, anytime someone tags a photo or post you made, that tag won't appear until you approve it.
To turn on tag review, click on the arrow at the top right of any Facebook page and select 'Settings' In the left-hand column. Then click Timeline and Tagging and look for the setting 'Who can add things to my timeline?' and click 'Edit' next to the option 'Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline' to turn this on.
It should be noted that this only controls what's allowed on your timeline. Posts you're tagged in still appear in search, news feed and other places on Facebook
6. Turn your profile upside down
When the Pirate English language option appeared on Facebook several years ago it attracted a fair bit of attention. It changes, for example, 'What's on your mind?' to 'What be troublin' ye?' and 'Share' to 'Divvy spoils t' all ye mateys'.
Now you can also choose 'Upside Down' as your version of English, which upends all your interface text. Just click on the arrow at the top right of any Facebook page and change 'language' to 'English (Upside Down)'.
7. Download your Facebook data
There is a feature in the General Account Settings that allows you to download information available to you in your account such as your timeline info, posts you have shared, messages, photos and more. Additionally, it includes information that is not available simply by logging into your account, like the ads you have clicked on, data like the IP addresses that are logged when you log into or out of Facebook, and more.
Click the arrow at the top right of any Facebook page and choose Settings. At the bottom of the General Account Settings in an option to "Download a copy of your Facebook data". Unfortunately, there is no way to individually select which data you would like to download when you download your Facebook info, so you will have to download your file in its entirety.
8. Activity log
Your Facebook activity log is a list of your posts and activity, from today back to the very beginning. You'll also see stories and photos you've been tagged in, as well as the connections you've made - like when you liked a Page or added someone as a friend. You can also use it to review and manage what you share on Facebook.
You can get to your activity log by clicking the arrow at the top right of any Facebook page and choosing Settings, followed by 'Privacy'. Next to 'Who can see my stuff?' click 'Use Activity Log'.
This can be used to quickly review your photos, and photos you're tagged in, that are shared with Public, and also review photos that you have hidden on your timeline.
9. Send a private message from a traditional email account
Send a message to someone on Facebook from your traditional email account (Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail etc) using their @facebook.com email address. This is in the format username@facebook.com. The emails will be delivered to your Facebook Messages folder
When you send messages to external email addresses, your emails will be formatted to look like Facebook messages, including your name, your profile picture and your message.
10. Turn off mobile push notifications
Sometimes getting endless notifications on your mobile phone about Facebook updates is just irritating. Push notifications can be turned on or off from your Facebook app or the settings on your smartphone.
From your Android, iPhone or iPad go to Privacy Settings > Notifications > Mobile Push and un-tick the things you don't want to get notifications about. It is not currently possible to adjust push notifications from mobile browsers or from feature phones.
