21 Hidden Facebook Features Only Power Users Know - Part 11

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Choose Who Controls Your Account After You Croak

Everyone on Facebook will die. One day. This may be true for other social networks as well, but you can definitely be assured that everyone you are friends with on Facebook will perish from this Earth. (Or, you know, unless the Singluarity comes to pass.) In anticipation of this unavoidable truth, Facebook has created a way to name a legacy contact who will manage your account after you are gone.

Your legacy contact will have the ability to write a pinned post for your profile, respond to new friend requests (e.g. friends or family who weren't on Facebook at the time of your demise), or update your profile and cover photo (do you really want your final image to be you in your ironic SpongeBob Halloween costume?) They won't have access to all your messages unless you proactively decide to give them access.

To assign a legacy contact, go to Settings > Security > Legacy Contact tab and choose one of your Facebook friends to handle your digital affairs. You will also have the opportunity to choose that your account is deleted after you die.

21 Hidden Facebook Features Only Power Users Know - Part 8

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Detail Your Facebook Romance

If you want to see the detailed Internet history of you and your significant other, go to www.facebook.com/us, and you will see the complete Facebook history with whomever you are listed as in a relationship with ("us," get it?). If you're not listed as being in a relationship, it will just go to your regular page because Facebook thinks that you are just in love with yourself.

21 Hidden Facebook Features Only Power Users Know - Part 7

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Create a Customizable Supersized Post

Sometimes you want to share something that is worth more than a few sentences or a single image. If you don't have your own blog you can take advantage of a Facebook "Note." This is a personal blog post that lives inside the Facebook ecosystem. Here you can share paragraphs of text and multiple images (no HTML coding knowledge required).

Just head on over to facebook.com/notes where you'll find notes from people you follow. If you want to add your own, just click the "+ Write a Note" link in the top-right corner. Spill your thoughts out using the easy post editor, add a cover image if you want, and share just like you would a regular Facebook post. If you can't finish your note in one sitting you can just save it and publish later.

21 Hidden Facebook Features Only Power Users Know - Part 4

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There's Lots of Secret Emoji on FB

Emoji. They take away some of the horrible pain of writing in plain language. Facebook will render all the usual face emoticons into pictorial representations: :) :D ^_^ . You know the ones. But there's also a whole bunch that you may not even be using.

(y) = thumbs-up 'like' symbol
(^^^) = a great white shark
:|] = a robot
:poop: = well, you know
< (") = a penguin

You can use these in wall posts, chats, and comments, but they don't always seem to render in mobile. You can find a full run-down of Facebook emoticons here.

21 Hidden Facebook Features Only Power Users Know - Part 3

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See Who's Snooping In Your Account

Want to know if someone is logged into your Facebook account without your permission? First, go to your settings page. Under the Security folder, you'll see the link "Where You're Logged In." Here you will find all your active Facebook log-ins from desktop or mobile. It will (usually) provide data on the location, browser, and device. If something seems fishy, you also have the ability to "end activity" from individual or all devices.

This also comes in handy if you logged in to your friend's computer or on some public laptop, but forgot to log out.

21 Hidden Facebook Features Only Power Users Know - Part 2

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The Facebook Inbox You Didn't Even Know You Had

If you've been a Facebook user for a while, then you probably have a folder full of unread messages that you didn't even know you had: the "Message Requests" folder (formerly, the "Other" folder.) This is where Facebook sends all the messages from people you're not currently friends with. It could be filled with old high school flings reaching out or a bunch of Nigerian spammers, who knows?! Only one way to find out!

To review these messages, click the "messages" icon at the top of your homescreen (or the "Messages" link in the left field). By default, you'll find yourself in the "Recent" tab of your inbox. Directly to the right, you'll find the "Message Request" tab. After you click this, you may see a link that says "See filtered requests." Click that and then you'll see all sorts of messages from strangers on the Internet. Have fun with that!

In 2012, Facebook experimented with allowing members to pay to reach the inboxes of non-friends. Fees started at $1 and went all the way up to $100 for Zuck himself, but the option to do this appears to be limited.

21 Hidden Facebook Features Only Power Users Know - Part 1

Facebook is the principal digital public square of today. Well, it's the principal digital public square for those of a certain age (i.e. post-college, the young'ns aren't into it!) But Zuck & Co's site is still an extremely integral virtual venue and will continue to be for some time.




While Facebook's business model has evolved away from just Facebook.com to include its mobile incarnation and other associated apps, the old familiar website is still the preferred venue for many. And why not? Facebook.com one of the most advanced public-facing websites out there.


Facebook is a magnet for some of the top engineering talent in the world, so it stands to reason that the company would boast one of the world's most complex and multi-faceted websites. It rivals many standalone software apps with the sheer amount of personalization, tweaks, and tinkering available to visitors.

In fact, there are so many things you can do on Facebook.com that you probably don't know about them all.



And we're not even talking about the third-party Facebook apps or browser add-ons, we're talking about all the official, baked-in, easily accessible functions that are just a few clicks away. As you'll see in our slideshow, there are even some functions that appear to be leftovers from bygone eras that we're not even sure Facebook still knows are there. Take a look and awaken your inner power user social super star.