Facebook's New Feature Allows You To Keep Posts In Tabs

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As you scroll through your News Feed every day, there are many posts and conversations you care about, and might want to keep tabs on. Sure, you could always save a post, but what about being able to keep posts and conversations open somewhere? Well, Facebook has a new feature that allows you to do just that!

The new unannounced feature was spotted over the weekend, and it allows you to keep posts in tabs – just like your Messenger conversations. My first introduction to the feature came in the form of a tab at the bottom of my News Feed which I could either minimise, close, or click to see at any time. The contents of the tab were of a friend’s post which I had commented on earlier. The introduction to the feature reads “NEW! Conversations that you care about will appear in tabs” ~~but it’s unclear whether Facebook will be opening certain conversations in tabs automatically. I haven’t seen any open on their own since then, so I am assuming not.~~

Update 22/3/2017: Facebook automatically opens conversations in tabs if someone replies or comments on a post that you have posted or commented on. Facebook seems to want to make conversations under posts more real-time with this feature.

The feature does allow you to pick manually which post you’d like to add to a tab that will open at the bottom of your screen. Just go to to top right-hand drop down menu on any post and pick “Show in tab.” If you don’t see the option, try under “Other options.” When the tab opens, you can interact with the post as usual, as well as minimise it or close it altogether. You also get two options under the gear menu – “See full post” or “Hide this tab.” If you choose to hide the tab, another dialogue pops up asking you if you’d like to “Keep notifications” or “Turn off notifications” before hiding it.

It is also unclear what kind of notifications one might get as a result of a tab being open – and whether a notification from an open tab will make a sound like Messenger notifications do for example.

Update 22/3/2017: Notifications from tabbed conversations don’t seem to make a sound, but if they are are minimised and someone answers a comment, a red number indicator appears on the minimised tab.

Many conversations take place below posts on Facebook. And yes, they’re conversations that we often want to stay a part of. Up until now, Facebook would send you a notification if someone else added something to a conversation, and you’d have to leave whatever you were looking at on News Feed, to go to another post. You could also save a post, and monitor it from time to time at your leisure, but nothing beats actually being able to keep that post available, without forcing you off your News Feed.