This guide will show you how to use a browser add-on to completely change the way you experience Facebook by allowing you to remove Sponsored ads, App & Game requests, Stories & much more.
F.B. Purity is a browser add-on that lets you customize your Facebook wall, profile and much more. It’s been around for ages and is considered trustworthy and safe to use. It’s also very frequently updated, so if a featured stops working because Facebook changed something, the F.B. Purity team update the add-on quickly to resolve any problems.
Best of all, it’s available for every major desktop browser, including: Chrome (and Chrome-based browsers like Vivaldi), Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari and Opera. Click on the link that represents your browser to install it, or visit the F.B. Purity installation page and install it from there. In most cases it’s as easy as clicking a button and following a couple of steps. Safari is a bit more involved, but really you just need to install another add-on first.
Proceed with step #1 once you have F.B. Purity installed.
- Head over to facebook.com. The first time you visit Facebook after installing F.B. Purity you’ll be greeted with a welcome message. Click the “X” in the upper-right corner to close the message.
- One thing you’ll probably notice right away is the new “FBP” button in the main toolbar. This is your gateway to the F.B. Purity settings – give it a click.
- There are a lot of settings and options. Don’t let this intimidate you, it’s all quite easy to understand and configure. As you can see, FBP blocks “Sponsored” posts (ads) and Game/App posts by default.
- Close out of the FBP settings and take a look at your Facebook ‘wall’. You’ll see a new line right above the posts on your wall titled F.B. Purity hid:. This is where FBP lets you know how many items it blocked (hid) and lets you review them. As illustrated in the screenshot below, FBP blocked 2 app related posts, and 2 ‘other’ posts. If your F.B. Purity hid: line doesn’t have any items in it, scroll down your wall – it will update as your wall expands. Once FBP has found something to hide, click the Show link.
- FBP will show you exactly what it blocked. It will also include a small “WL” link in the upper-right corner of the posts it blocks. WL stands for “whitelist” – so if there is an app or game you do want to see on your wall, you can add it to your whitelist and FBP will no longer block/hide it.
- Another large frequent ‘waste of space’ on your Facebook wall is the People You May Know section.
- Go back to the F.B. Purity Settings by clicking the large FBP button in your toolbar. In the More Options section, place a check next to People You May Know
- Now click the Save and Close button. This ensures the new setting is saved, and refreshes your Facebook page with those new settings applied. In this case, the People You May Know section will stop appearing on your wall.
- The only way to really figure out everything F.B. Purity can do is to go through the options one by one. Start with the Newsfeed Filters section.
- A big list of all the various things that FBP can hide from your wall.
- The “catch all” way to hide content using FBP is the Text filter. This lets you block content that matches a keyword or phrase no matter who or what posts it. You can use it to filter out things like sports, politicians, celebrities or products.
- Keep reviewing the various options and settings and eventually you’ll have a version of Facebook that completely suits your needs.
