Facebook, please implement this feature ASAP!
Since Brian Chesky asked followers on Twitter for feedback about features they wanted to see on future AirBnB product iterations, it became kind of a trend among founders to do the same. If and when Mark Zuckerberg asks users about ideas for Facebook, here is my number one request.
IMHO, the main missing Facebook feature right now, and one that would dramatically increase retention and quality time on the social network, is the ability to see or hide posts on the newsfeed based on filters defined by users. Currently, I can just unfollow or exclude a friend, page or a news source, but I cannot mute any of them by keyword, subject or time frame.
My request makes more sense during or after events such as sports games, elections or tragic deaths. For instance, I could choose not to see anything related to the American elections or the keyword "Donald Trump" from my friends and news sources.
Another good use case is a football match, where most of my friends post about the game results and tease each other. I like what my friends say most of the time but I don't care about their oppinions about a specific game. Therefore I don't want to unfollow them just because they're happy or excited, but I want to mute the subject for a period of time because it is annoying.
Filters could be applied to many use cases such as avoiding spoilers on movies you haven't watched yet, hiding cats or wedding pictures, curse words, etc. It is pretty simple and would make me happier to be on Facebook for more time.
I am confident that, on a technical point of view, Facebook could implement these changes if they want to and I wonder why they haven't yet. Maybe it could backfire and have users spend less time on the network, maybe it would aggravate the "fake news" problem. I have no data to judge.
But as a hardcore user, I want more options to control what I see on my feed. After all, I am being monetized by Facebook and I should have a voice on what impacts my well being while on the platform.
