How to get rid of Facebook's unpopular new giant status updates

The font change was seemingly made without any official announcement or forewarning from Mark Zuckerberg's usually fastitidous team

Peter Walker
Wednesday 09 November 2016 14:45 GMT
Comments
Mark Zuckerberg's California-based social media network quietly made the change earlier this year
Mark Zuckerberg's California-based social media network quietly made the change earlier this year

Facebook has quietly introduced a new feature that has confused and even offended some of its users worldwide.

A status post of less than 35 characters now appears in a larger and bolder font - a move reportedly intended to help it “stand out” from longer, wordier posts.

Unhappy account holders have taken against it on the grounds that the new formatting makes their messages appear as though they are emanating from a drunk or crazed person.

Font appears in bold and upsized when under 35 characters Facebook

The large font can, however, be overruled if a user includes any multimedia in their post, such as a photo or location tagging.

One tech-savvy user told a forum board that the annoying quirk can be tackled - and the normal font reverted to - if people upload a small photo displaying a blank white space along with their message.

He recommended including a block of white space that is 800px wide by 1px high.

One Reddit user said “I liked the old Facebook better” and another said the big-font posts, “look like screaming”.

Facebook users were also baffled when WhatsApp said in August that it would start sharing data with Mark Zuckerberg’s California-based social network.

The instant messaging giant was later hit with threats of legal action by a German consumer watchdog.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in