How to Hide New Facebook Avatars, Haters
I didn’t expect to get so frustrated with Facebook avatars, but comments on my recent guide to making these new Bitmoji spoofs let me know how many of you really, really hate these cute new stickers.
I’m not here to rate Facebook . As an adult, you can decide which services you want to use, which ones to ignore, and why. However, I can offer you options. If you really hate the new Facebook avatars, there is a clever way to hide them – and any mention of them – throughout the site.
Before I get to that, one short word: this trick only works for the web version of Facebook, viewable in a desktop or laptop browser. I don’t have an easy way to remove them from your Facebook app, which admittedly is probably the way you use Facebook 95 percent of the time. As soon as I come up with it (if at all possible), I will definitely let you know.
How to hide new Facebook avatars
First, you need to install the FB Purity extension for any of the major web browsers: Chrome , Firefox or Safari (after installing Tampermonkey for the first time to enable custom scripts). It’s a handy extension that you can use to customize crap from your news feed. In fact, I recommend spending some time doing this once you’ve cleared Facebook of avatars, as it allows you to customize the site for a specific look or make sure you don’t see certain annoying post types in your newsfeed.
From there, make sure you are using Facebook in classic mode, you can only customize the extension in classic mode, but the avatar hiding trick should still work if you want to switch back to Facebook’s new design . (As a reminder, if you are using this new design, simply click the big arrow icon in the upper right corner and select “Switch to classic Facebook” to return to the previous iteration; you will repeat these steps. To return to “New Facebook” when you finish configuring FB Purity.)
Assuming you’ve installed the FB Purity extension, you should now see a strange “FBP” logo at the top of the Facebook user interface.
Click on it and you will open this giant window:
To be honest, I find the user interface a bit cumbersome, which is why it took me so long to figure out how to hide Facebook avatars. Either way, feel free to dig into the extension later; For now, you’ll want to start by clicking the Auto Hide link to the right above the giant blank text box. As stated in the description: “Enter words or phrases on separate lines, and if they appear in a post, you want to automatically hide that post from the news feed.”
It is one of the most powerful tools the extension provides you. I recommend entering the word “avatar”, which should obscure any occasion that someone “shares” their avatar and you see a giant version of their digital self in your news feed. It will also hide messages like “How do I get an avatar on Facebook”, “I don’t have an avatar yet like everyone else” and “I thought Avatar was one of the best movies ever made.” (Sorry / don’t regret this last one if you are one of 12 people still eagerly awaiting these continually delayed sequels.)
We’re not done yet! Then you need to click on the Font, Color and Design link on the left sidebar. It will look like this:
You will want to select the Hide Graphic / Smileys option. Then make sure you clicked the blue Save & Close button in the center of the FB Purity screen. You must click here. If you simply select “x” from the window using the button in the upper right corner, your changes will not be saved and you will write to me that I gave you terrible advice.
To prove it works, let’s take a look at the before and after:
“Hide graphic smilies / smilies” removed
The checkbox “Hide graphic smilies / smilies” is selected.
Of course, this setup has its drawbacks. While you will remove most of the Facebook avatars (you can see a few laggards here and there), you will also remove the sticker replies and those cute little faces that people can leave in the comments. You can still react to the comment, you just won’t see the little icons anymore.
I suspect these losses aren’t your biggest concern – if you’re mad enough at the avatars to hide them, you probably don’t care too much about stickers either.