Luckily, there are a few methods you can use to simplify your navigation by customizing the shortcuts tab. Here’s what to know about these icons and how to add and remove shortcuts on the Facebook app.

Facebook App Shortcuts Explained

Shortcuts on the Facebook app provide access points to different pages and features in one place—you’ll see these icons on the shortcut bar. For Android users, this bar will be at the top, and for iPhone users, it’s at the bottom. It also appears at the top of the page of the Facebook website on desktop browsers.

The Facebook shortcuts bar makes navigation quick and easy since there’s no need to scroll through a menu to get to where you want. Most of the shortcuts can be removed and re-added, and their notification dots can also be disabled and enabled—we’ll show you how later on.

First, let’s have a look at your Facebook shortcut options that you will find in the shortcut bar.

Home

The first shortcut to the left is Home (the homepage), represented by a house icon. This is where you’ll access your Newsfeed. This shortcut can’t be removed.

The Menu is on the far right (the hamburger icon) and will open a page where you can have quick access to things like saved posts, events, as well as some of the Facebook shortcuts that are also accessed through the shortcuts bar.

There are several tabs in this Menu page from where you can customize the app’s settings. This is an essential tab and can therefore not be removed.

Notifications

The bell icon is the Notifications tab. Here, you’ll find all your notifications (that you have turned on) such as comments, likes, shares, invitations to like pages, and birthday reminders. This tab can’t be removed either.

Profile

The Profile shortcut is a circular avatar icon and it’s where you can access your profile and all your posts. You can remove it, and if you do, your profile is still accessible from the Menu page via the hamburger icon.

Friends

The Friends shortcut is an icon with two people. This is where you can view all your Facebook friend requests and suggested friends to add. If you remove the tab, you’ll get friend request notifications in the Notifications tab instead.

There is a difference between friend requests and followers; you will get notifications for both.

Marketplace

The Facebook Marketplace shortcut is represented with a tent icon, and here you can discover, buy, and sell items—just remember to follow safety precautions when using Facebook Marketplace.

The Marketplace section comes with its own list of settings where you can filter through specific items. Listings will be based on your location by default, but you can change it.

Groups

Facebook Groups combines posts from all the groups you’re a part of into its own feed. Similar to suggestions that pop up on your regular feed, you’ll see some suggested groups here. It’s a circular icon with three people and can be removed.

You can easily leave a Facebook Group if you end up not liking the content.

Watch

Watch suggests videos from creators that you might be interested in. It’s a rectangular play button icon and can be removed.

Gaming

The Gaming shortcut has multiple sections where you can access suggested Facebook games, watch let’s play videos, and view gaming community posts. This shortcut looks like a rectangular box with some lines and can be removed.

Feeds

In July 2022, Facebook introduced Feeds. This tab allows you to have better control over what you see, where you can view posts from All, Favorites, Friends, Groups, or Pages. This shortcut looks like a newspaper icon with a timer and can be removed.

How to Remove Facebook Shortcuts by Long-Pressing

Long-pressing on an icon from the shortcuts bar is the simplest way to remove a shortcut in the Facebook app. But you can only remove or pin shortcuts with this method, not add them.

To hide Facebook shortcuts by long-pressing, follow these steps:

Locate and long-press on the shortcut you want to remove in the shortcut bar. From the popup menu, tap Hide from shortcut bar. A temporary dialog box will appear to confirm the changes you’ve made. Tap on Settings if you want to reverse the change—more on this later—but be quick since the box will disappear after a few seconds.

If you want to pin a shortcut to your shortcut bar using the long-press method, simply tap Pin to shortcut bar from the popup menu. Facebook customizes your shortcuts based on your activity, so if you never use a shortcut, it might disappear after a while. Pinning it ensures it stays.

How to Add or Remove Facebook Shortcuts From Settings

Not only can you hide shortcuts from the shortcut bar via Facebook settings, but you can also pin them and add new ones.

To add or hide Facebook shortcuts via the settings, follow these steps:

Locate and tap Menu (the hamburger icon) on the right of the shortcut bar. You can also long-press on a shortcut in the shortcut bar, then select Shortcut bar preferences from the popup. It will lead you to the same place as the next steps. If you chose to go to the Menu, go to Settings & Privacy > Settings. Scroll down to the Preferences category. Select Shortcuts > Shortcut bar. You will be taken to a section where you can manage your shortcut bar preferences.

In this section, there are three categories, one for each status you can toggle a shortcut to:

Your shortcuts: These are the shortcuts that you Pin to the shortcut bar. We recommend setting a shortcut to Pinned if you use it often. Available shortcuts: These shortcuts are set to Auto, and, as mentioned before, Facebook will add, remove, or rearrange them automatically based on your activity. Hidden shortcuts: When you Hide a shortcut from the shortcut bar, it gets put in this category.

As you toggle these, you’ll see your Facebook shortcuts get added or removed in real-time in the shortcut bar.

How to Turn Notification Dots On and Off by Long-Pressing

If you’d prefer not to see notification dots on the shortcut icons, you can disable them by long-pressing.

To disable and enable Facebook notification dots by long-pressing, follow these steps:

Hold down on a shortcut icon in the shortcut bar that you want to remove the notification dots from. From the pop-up, select Turn off notification dots. To turn these dots back on, long press on the shortcut icon, and select Turn on notification dots.

You’ll see a popup dialog box confirming your action.

How to Turn Notification Dots On and Off From Settings

You can also customize the notification dots from your Facebook settings.

To disable and enable Facebook notification dots from the settings, follow these steps:

Locate and tap Menu (the hamburger icon) on the right of the shortcut bar. Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings. Scroll down to the Preferences category. Select Shortcuts > Notification dots. You will be taken to a section where you can manage your shortcut notification dots preferences. Toggle the blue tabs on and off to enable or disable notification dots for a shortcut. Only the shortcuts that you currently have pinned to your shortcut bar will appear here.

Customize Your Facebook Shortcuts

Shortcuts are there to make navigation quick and convenient. But let’s be real, they can also clog up your screen. Follow the above guide to choose which shortcuts you want to display and whether or not you want to see their notification dots.