Skip to main content

Did Facebook mass execute its News Feed Ticker? [Update: It’s back]

where is the ticker hide toggle on off
Image used with permission by copyright holder

[Update, 9:22 a.m. PST]

It appears we all spoke and/or tweeted too soon, and the Ticker is back. Facebook has been experiencing an especially bad morning with tons of feature outages, including the inability to post status updates, Like posts, and yes, the Ticker disappeared from many profiles. 

Given how Facebook’s been testing this removal anyway and the mass absence (plus the fact that everything else was fully functional for many of us), we assumed there’d been an axing. Unfortunately that’s not the case (yet) and the Ticker lives to fight another die. 

——

This morning upon signing into Facebook, something felt … different. Off. Not quite normal – but perhaps better. Well it turns out that’s because the Ticker is gone from my page. 

page without ticker
Image used with permission by copyright holder

And this doesn’t appear to be a small test; a quick office poll revealed that most of us are now Tickerless. And Twitter users are wondering where their’s went as well. 

While the breadth of the Ticker removal is fairly sudden and staggering, the fact that Facebook is shutting it down isn’t surprising. There has been talk about killing off the hyper-speed notifications bar since … well, almost since it launched. Plenty of users have reported for years now the absence of their Ticker, as Facebook has been testing whether to remove the thing altogether. 

The Ticker was introduced along with the Timeline back in September 2011, just ahead of Facebook’s F8 conference. The idea behind the feature was to give us a slice of real time interaction without massively restructuring how News Feed works. “Now when a friend comments, asks a question or shares something like a check in, you’ll be able to join the conversation right away. Click on anything in the ticket to see the full story and chime in – without losing your place,” Facebook said at the time

But as it turns out, for all our problems with News Feed, we did not care for the Ticker (save for the sad souls on Twitter wondering where it went). Browsers launched extensions to get rid of it, and complaints piled up. The Ticker meant that none of your Facebook connected activity could go unnoticed – i.e., those long embarrassing Spotify sessions you forgot to toggle as private, or a 3 a.m. drunken photo liking spree. The Ticker saw – and told – all. 

It did seem like it could help Facebook approach its real time problems, what with its continued competition with Twitter and need to drive timely, public conversations. But the Ticker didn’t capture our attention or drive activity; it was just a constantly-updating, tiny little fly buzzing in the corner of the room and driving us crazy … until one day, it just became a distant hum of white noise we ably ignored. 

Farewell, Ticker. You shall not be missed. 

Editors' Recommendations

Molly McHugh
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…
Facebook calls Kenosha shooting mass murder after event promoted call to arms
facebook hacked

Facebook has designated the shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as a "mass murder" and removed the suspect's Facebook and Instagram accounts. Two people were killed and one injured Tuesday night after an event touting a "call to arms" against Black Lives Matter protests circulated on the platform.

"We’ve designated this shooting as a mass murder and have removed the shooter’s accounts from Facebook and Instagram," a company spokesperson told Digital Trends in a statement. "At this time, we have not found evidence on Facebook that suggests the shooter followed the Kenosha Guard Page or that he was invited on the Event Page they organized."

Read more
Facebook seeks to protect election integrity with its new voting info hub
Trump with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stylized image

Facebook’s information hub for voting resources, which it announced a few weeks ago, is now available in the United States. The social network wrote in a blog post that by offering quick access to accurate and authoritative voting information, it wants to help “protect the integrity of our elections” and “navigate a confusing election process.”

Both Instagram and Facebook users will soon find a link to the Voting Information Center in their accounts. Facebook, however, says it will also individually send notifications to inform people of voting age about the new feature.

Read more
Facebook restricts news outlets that have ties to political groups
The Facebook home page on a screen.

Facebook’s News tab will no longer include news publishers that have political affiliations. 

The new policy announced on Tuesday allows news publishers with political ties to exist on the platform, but limits what features they can access. Publishers that are directly affiliated with a political entity or person can no longer claim the news exemption within Facebook’s ad authorization process, and they won’t be included in Facebook News. 

Read more