How do I stop seeing Facebook Stories on my feed?

Quick Answer

Facebook Stories are short photo or video posts that disappear after 24 hours. They appear at the top of your News Feed. If you find them annoying or distracting, there are a few ways to stop seeing Facebook Stories in your feed:

• Temporarily hide all Stories – Click on the X in the top right corner of a story to hide all stories for that day.
• Permanently hide individual stories – Hover over a story and click the X icon to permanently hide that person’s stories.
• Unfollow friends who post stories – Go to that friend’s profile, click Following, and select Unfollow.
• Turn off story notifications – Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Notifications and turn off “Facebook Stories”.

Keep in mind that hiding or unfollowing friends will also stop you seeing their regular posts in your News Feed. But overall, you have full control over what appears in your News Feed, so customize it to best suit your preferences.

What are Facebook Stories?

Facebook Stories allow users to post photos and short videos that disappear after 24 hours. Stories appear at the top of the News Feed on mobile and the right side column on desktop.

Some key features of Facebook Stories:

• They disappear after 24 hours.
• They appear as circles with your friends’ profile pictures.
• Tapping on a story plays a slideshow of the story’s contents.
• Stories include camera filters and drawing tools for decorating posts.
• Friends can react and respond to your stories via private messages.
• Stories don’t get likes or public comments.

Facebook introduced stories in 2017 to compete with Snapchat and Instagram stories. At first, only some users had access to the feature. Stories rolled out to all Facebook users globally by mid 2018.

Why do some people find Facebook Stories annoying?

There are a few reasons why some Facebook users dislike seeing stories in their News Feed:

• Stories take up a large portion of the feed’s top space, pushing down regular posts.
• The constantly changing visuals can seem distracting.
• Stories auto-play as you scroll, which eats up mobile data.
• People tire of ephemeral sharing and prefer permanent posts.
• Seeing lots of stories feels like information overload.
• Some users simply have no interest in their friends’ everyday stories.

Of course, plenty of people enjoy viewing Facebook Stories too. But if you find yourself feeling annoyed or overwhelmed by the stories in your feed, there are several ways to curate your News Feed experience.

How to temporarily hide Facebook Stories

If you want to take a break from Facebook Stories for a while, you can quickly hide them all at once:

1. Launch the Facebook app on your phone or open Facebook in a desktop browser.
2. Scroll through the News Feed until you see stories.
3. In the top right corner of a story, tap or click the X icon.
4. This hides all stories for the day. Stories will reappear the next day.

Temporarily hiding stories is handy if you want to focus on permanent posts for a bit. This method also conserves mobile data since it prevents stories from auto-playing as you scroll.

One downside is that it applies to all stories from all friends. You can’t selectively hide stories from certain people only. But it’s an easy option if you want a quick stories break.

How to permanently hide a friend’s stories

If one or two friends in particular share overly frequent stories, you can permanently mute just their stories:

1. Open the Facebook app or website.
2. Go to the profile page of the friend whose stories you want to hide.
3. Tap or click on the three dots in the top right corner of their profile.
4. Select Hide Story.

This prevents this friend’s stories from ever appearing in your feed again. You can still see their regular timeline posts normally.

To undo the change later, go back to their profile and select Unhide Story.

Permanently hiding stories is more targeted than temporarily hiding all stories. Use it when just a few friends’ story sharing habits bother you.

How to unfollow friends posting annoying stories

One step further than hiding stories is to unfollow friends who post too many stories altogether. This will remove both their stories and regular posts from your News Feed.

To unfollow a friend on Facebook:

1. Go to their profile page.
2. Tap or click Following below their cover photo.
3. Select Unfollow [name].

You can still visit the friend’s profile page to see their posts if you choose. But their content will no longer show up in your personalized News Feed.

Unfollowing is more extreme than hiding stories alone. Use it sparingly for friends who chronically over-share stories when you have no interest in their day-to-day activities.

How to turn off Facebook Story notifications

Tired of constant notifications drawing your attention to new stories? You can disable Facebook Story notifications:

1. Open the Facebook app and tap the three-line Menu icon.
2. Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings.
3. Tap Notifications.
4. Turn off the toggle next to Facebook Stories.

This stops you getting notified about new stories from friends. The stories will still appear in your News Feed, but won’t actively vie for your attention.

Turning off notifications also conserves battery life by reducing unnecessary interrupts throughout the day. Disable them if you feel your phone is buzzing too often with story alerts.

Other ways to optimize your News Feed

Beyond stories, the News Feed has many customization options to show more or less of certain post types from friends, Groups, Pages and more.

Here are some additional tips for tailoring your News Feed experience:

• Unfollow friends who share too frequently or annoyingly overall.
• Snooze friends temporarily if their posts are currently overwhelming.
• Follow interesting Pages related to your hobbies and interests.
• Join niche Groups to see more posts on particular topics.
• Use Lists to group friends into categories like Close Friends.
• Tell Facebook to show more or fewer posts from Groups, Pages, etc.
• Hide individual posts you don’t want to see.

Optimizing your feed takes some trial and error. But you can curate a mix of content that keeps you productively informed without feeling overwhelmed.

Conclusion

Facebook Stories may be popular and fun for sharing ephemeral moments, but they’re not for everyone. If you find yourself frustrated or distracted by the constant influx of stories in your News Feed, use the options above to take back control.

Temporarily hiding all stories, permanently hiding stories from certain friends, and unfollowing prolific story posters can give you some breathing room. For a more focused feed, turn off story notifications and tailor your broader News Feed preferences too. Soon your News Feed will feel less cluttered with distractions and more attuned to the information you really care about.

Method	How To	Benefits	Drawbacks
Temporarily hide all stories	Tap X icon at top of story	Takes break from all stories Conserves mobile data	Can’t selectively hide Stories reappear the next day
Permanently hide friend’s stories	Tap Hide Story on profile	Targets annoying friends Stays hidden forever	Still see their regular posts
Unfollow friends	Select Unfollow on profile	Removes all content from feed	Extreme measure Can’t see any of their posts
Turn off notifications	Disable in Settings	Stops disruptive alerts Saves battery life	Stories still appear in feed