List of Facebook features

The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of the social media site.

This has enabled spammers and other users to manipulate these features by creating illegitimate events or posting fake birthdays to attract attention to their profile or cause.

Others were concerned that the News Feed made it too easy for other people to track activities like changes in relationship status, events, and conversations with other users.

[citation needed] In September 2011, Facebook introduced "Timeline" at its developer conference, intended to revamp users' profiles in order to show content based on year, month and date.

[30] After extensive testing[31] and years of questions from the public about whether it had an intention to incorporate a "Dislike" button,[32] Facebook officially rolled out "Reactions" to users worldwide on February 24, 2016, letting users long-press on the like button for an option to use one of six pre-defined emotions, including "Like", "Love", "Haha", "Wow", "Sad", or "Angry" and for a limited time the following reactions, "Care", "Pride Flag", "Thankful".

Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008,[45] the company revamped its messaging service in 2010,[46] and subsequently released standalone iOS and Android apps in August 2011.

[82] In November 2010, Facebook announced "Deals", a subset of the Places offering, which allows for users to check in from restaurants, supermarkets, bars, and coffee shops using an app on a mobile device and then be rewarded discounts, coupons, and free merchandise.

[85] Facebook Places was reported discontinued on August 24, 2011,[86] but was relaunched in November 2014, now including cover images, discovery sections, city/category landing pages, a deeper integration with the Location API, Graph Search queries and user generated content.

[87] The Facebook Platform provides a set of APIs and tools which enable third-party developers to integrate with the "open graph", whether through applications on Facebook.com or external websites and devices.

Stanford University even offered a class in the Fall of 2007, entitled, Computer Science (CS) 377W: "Create Engaging Web Applications Using Metrics and Learning on Facebook".

[107][108] In April 2016, Facebook unveiled a live-streaming API, aimed to allow developers to use any device, including professional video cameras and drones, to integrate with the live-video streaming platform.

[126] The service was also used to broadcast the hostage taking during the Nakhon Ratchasima shootings, which ultimately left 31 people dead including the perpetrator and 57 others injured.

Content is organized under headings such as "Creators" and "Planet"; secondly, Paper allows users to post statuses, photos, and "stories" to Facebook that has been described as a different, more presentation-focused design.

In addition to the podcast product, Facebook is also working on other audio-focused offerings like a virtual chatroom feature akin to Clubhouse and short-form audio posts dubbed "Soundbites".

[156][157] According to a June 2010 report by Network World, Facebook said that it was offering "experimental, non-production" support for IPv6, the long-anticipated upgrade to the Internet's main communications protocol.

"[167] The feature was never removed from Facebook; in December 2017, the company gave the button a significantly more prominent placement on users' profiles,[168] along with new forms of quick interactions, including "hug", "wink" and "high-five", collectively all referred to as "Greetings".

[172] During the early success of app stores, Facebook gambled on the idea of a universal webpage rather than specific operating systems, choosing to maintain its primary focus on its mobile site.

[172] Finally, in 2012, the company relaunched its Android and iOS apps, going mobile-first and putting all of its resources into making an optimized experience for smartphones, including significant speed improvements.

[176] Approximately two years later, the company released a new fundraiser feature, exclusively allowing non-profits to set up campaign pages and collect payments.

[189] In September 2011, Facebook launched the "Ticker", a continually-updated feed on the right side of the screen showing friends' activities, including "likes", status updates, and comments.

[192][193] Starting June 13, 2009, Facebook lets users choose a username specifically for their profile, enabling them to share links bearing their own www.facebook.com/username URL address.

"Call to action" is a customizable button that lets page administrators add external links for easy visitor access to the business' primary objective, with options ranging from "Book Now", "Contact Us", "Use App", "Play Game", "Shop Now", "Sign Up", and "Watch Video".

[217][218] In an August 20 blogpost, Facebook's Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan, and Director of Product Management David Baser, announced "Off-Facebook Activity", to be released in Ireland, South Korea, and Spain, before being rolled out globally.

[224] Facebook will display warnings when users are about to be duped by clickjacking and cross-site scripting attacks in which they think they are following a link to an interesting news story or taking action to see a video and instead end up spamming their friends.

[224] Facebook also offers two-factor authentication called "login approvals", which, if turned on, will require users to enter a code whenever they log into the site from a new or unrecognized device.

[224] In February 2010, TechCrunch reported that Facebook was working to rewrite its messaging service to turn it into a "fully featured webmail product", dubbed "Project Titan".

[225] The feature, unofficially dubbed a "Gmail killer" internally, was launched on November 15, 2010,[226] and allowed users to directly communicate with each other via Facebook using several different methods.

[230] A beta version of the slimmed-down interface was released first to invited testers[231] before a broader rollout across users in the United States, Canada, and India.

In June 2015, this feature was reintroduced as an app with a total size of less than 1 MB, primarily focusing markets where internet access is slow or limited.

[232] Facebook announced a pilot program called Deals, which offered online coupons and discounts from local businesses, at an event at its Palo Alto office on 3 November 2010.