Right now, your Facebook notifications are a largely ignorable clump of birthday reminders and post alerts from that one group you've been meaning to leave. We love seeing that little red circle thinking it's a Like on our newest profile picture, only to find that, actually, we just have three pokes from six years ago waiting for us. But starting today, Facebook's notifications are going to get a lot more useful.
Facebook's notification tab is now customizable. You can opt to include a variety of more timely and socially relevant information, from reminders from your favorite sports teams or announcements from TV shows you've Liked to friends' life events. It's a little bit like Google Now, but all within Facebook.
Facebook product manager Keith Peiris wrote in a blog post that the team decided to make this change based on feedback that people wanted to add important information that they can easily see in the app, all in one place. You can get the new notification tab by updating your Facebook app.
Users will also now have the option to enable Location History on the app. This will send even more pertinent notifications your way — things that are specific to your area, such as the weather, movie showtimes, and community events. Caveat: This means Facebook knows everywhere you are and everywhere you've been. Of course, convenience like this often comes at the cost of privacy.
If you take advantage of these updates, any previous changes you've made to your notification settings will not change. And if you haven't turned off those pesky group notifications yet, you may want to. Your notifications tab just got a whole lot busier.