Download Highlight Facebook
Delia Nassimi
In late November 2023, we received reader mail that asked about a specific Facebook rumor. According to the emails, the rumor was about Facebook posts that claimed that typing an "@" symbol in a comment box, selecting the word "highlight" from a pop-up menu and then submitting the comment would allow a user to see which friends had been lurking on their profile or page more than anyone else.
The gist of this rumor was that this supposed "@" and "highlight" method would produce a small list of Facebook friends, perhaps family members, close friends and maybe even anyone who was secretly and romantically attracted to the user.
To test the "@" and "highlight" rumor, we chose a Facebook post (a scam post that falsely claimed investors on "Shark Tank" endorsed keto weight loss gummies) and simply typed out "@highlight." Before posting the comment, a menu popped up that listed various Facebook pages that included the word "highlight" in them. Near the bottom of the list, "@highlight" was mentioned with the words, "Some friends might receive notifications."
Upon selecting the "@highlight" feature with the words about friends receiving notifications and then posting the comment, the "@highlight" text turned blue and turned into a link. Clicking on this link simply led to a Facebook page that displayed pending friend requests. The link did not display any current Facebook friends who might be repeatedly viewing a user's profile. (The URL that the "@highlight" link led to was facebook.com/find-friends/browser.)
As for the "@highlight" comment feature itself, Distractify.com published in October 2023 that its legitimate purpose is to allow users "to highlight a particular post by increasing its size and visibility." We reached out to Facebook for more details and will update this story if we receive a response.
Although social media companies are constantly rolling out new features and capabilities for their services, your average user may not be aware of these features or what they do unless they are beaten over the head with them. One such feature that Meta recently rolled out for Facebook involves highlighting a specific post on your page or profile.
The @highlight comment that you've seen across posts on Facebook is one way to use the highlighting feature. By simply commenting @highlight under your post, it expands the post's size on other people's news feeds and increases its visibility on the news feed and on your profile page. The highlight function is designed sort of like a pinned tweet on Twitter, in the sense that it can emphasize a particular post you really want people to see.
The highlighting feature is designed to help you emphasize content, but it also appears bigger than other posts, which will hopefully draw more users to content you really want them to see or focus on. Highlighting a post also allows you to extend its duration on the news feed, which means it will be near the top of people's feeds for longer than an average post might be. Highlighting a post also gives it a permanent position near the top of a user's profile page, ensuring others see it.
The exact appearance of a highlighted post is going to vary from device to device, but what seems clear is that this new feature will emphasize the content you want people to see, and keep it relevant for longer.
Users on Facebook are likely to highlight very different kinds of content. It could be a photo from your wedding, a promotional offer for your business, or anything else you really feel that people should know when they visit your profile.
Notifications have been hitting me almost daily with this same spammy post. Posted by different people and different people using the "@highlight" tag. I can't find a way to disable "@highlight" tags in any settings.
That video tab is a crucial element in Facebook's wider plan to dominate video - just as YouTube has a recommendation engine to highlight other content you might be interested in, Facebook's video discovery tab will also show you related content, but it has the capacity to be significantly more targeted, more individually focused based on all the data Facebook has on your viewing history, Pages liked, friends, etc. The potential for that tab to become 'a YouTube killer' of sorts is big, though initially, at least according to the release notes, its focus will be on Facebook Live content, which is where Zuck and Co are paying the most attention.
The discovery tab will highlight the Live video "that the world is talking about, live video from the friends and creators that matter most to you, and live video on topics you're interested in" - but while Facebook's very keen to connect people to more Live content, you'll also be able to search for non-live videos through this new option as well.
This underlines the power of the new video search option, beyond just highlighting Live content alone - and while even in this screenshot Live still remains the key focus, Facebook's new video tab actually has expanded utility and will help users connect to various forms of video content from across the network.
2. Scroll through to see the highlights gathered -- they include the top people you interacted with; the places you most frequently checked in to; and the people you've connected with the most during 2021.
For more year enders, check out how to create your Instagram 2021 Playback stories highlight, how to get your Spotify Wrapped on Apple Music, YouTube Music or Tidal and how to see your Reddit year in review.
Now all you have to do is go to your Facebook page and hover over the settings up top. It might take a couple seconds, but when the menu appears Facebook Fixer should be at the bottom so you can click on it and edit the settings to get rid of the highlights section. See my Firefox section for the settings I chose, which got rid of highlights, but kept the group and friend requests. If you check the box to get rid of the entire right column, it includes any type of request.
Careful how you use greasemonkey and stylish, but what is great is if you mess up, you can just turn it off or install another script that someone else has put together. I have used Stylish to get rid of all the adverts and to change all the colours of facebook.
Facebook is moving the button for its Messenger service so that the new video option can be highlighted on the notification panel. When pressed, the video button will show a directory of live streams from a user's friends, as well as segments available to anyone on the world's largest social network.
One such feature is @highlight Facebook, which enables users to draw attention to a particular post in their comments. By using this feature, users can easily point out an interesting or significant post or spark a discussion on a specific topic.
That's it! Your comment will now be displayed with the highlighted post at the top of the comment section. This allows all of your friends to quickly identify the post you're referring to, making it easier for them to join in on the conversation or simply understand the context of your comment.
Lichterman, Joseph. "Facebook teams with Storyful to highlight news content published on the social network." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 24 Apr. 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2023.
Lichterman, J. (2014, Apr. 24). Facebook teams with Storyful to highlight news content published on the social network. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved December 14, 2023, from -teams-with-storyful-to-highlight-news-content-published-on-the-social-network/
Lichterman, Joseph. "Facebook teams with Storyful to highlight news content published on the social network." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified April 24, 2014. Accessed December 14, 2023. -teams-with-storyful-to-highlight-news-content-published-on-the-social-network/.
Now all of the above being said, @highlight does have a legitimate purpose on Facebook. If you post something and then immediately comment @highlight on that post it will attract more viewers to the post. This can be useful for posts that really need to be seen by as many people as possible (a post exposing a scam, for example).
"One danger is that Facebook often gives us information about our friends that we are not normally privy to, which gives us even more opportunities to socially compare," Steers said. "You can't really control the impulse to compare because you never know what your friends are going to post. In addition, most of our Facebook friends tend to post about the good things that occur in their lives, while leaving out the bad. If we're comparing ourselves to our friends' 'highlight reels,' this may lead us to think their lives are better than they actually are and conversely, make us feel worse about our own lives."
CSUB will use Facebook as an informative, interesting and positive way to share news, feature stories, photos and videos with its followers. Facebook will provide an opportunity for CSUB to highlight university achievements, campus news, student life and community partnerships. The platform allows for longer-form text, but CSUB will aim to keep copy short and use engaging photos/videos that would encourage audiences to click to learn more.
For the fourth Mental Health Month Facebook Live Steve Black, Emergency Services Supervisor with the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board (CSB) highlighted the emergency services available for those experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis. Services are available 24/7 365 days a year and include the Merrifield Crisis Response Center and the Mobile Crisis Unit.
We know Big Ten fans want to watch their team's highlights in any number of places. Now if you're on Facebook, you can like and follow any of our 14 school Facebook Watch channels to get exclusive extended game highlight videos right after your school's football and men's basketball games.
This is the third in the series for the New Look for Facebook Pages and if you missed the first two there are links to the posts at the end of this one. This one is about pinning, highlighting and milestones.
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