If you’ve logged on to Facebook recently, you may have been prompted with this pop-up:
It’s not entirely new, as Meta has been rolling out this option to selected regions over the past few months. But Meta has now confirmed that all users will soon have the new Link History archive, available on both Android and iOS, but not desktop as yet.
As outlined in the pop-up, Link History will enable you to easily find links that you’ve interacted with in the app.
As per Facebook:
“You can choose to turn link history on at any time. When link history is on, any links that you’ve tapped inside of Facebook and visited in Facebook’s Mobile Browser will be saved here for 30 days.”
Facebook also notes that any links that you’ve visited via private chats on Messenger are not saved to link history, while you can also remove links from your history at any time.
It could be a handy option for finding that thing that you saw on Facebook that one time, but you can’t quite remember the details, though you also have “Recent Ad Activity” in the app, which tracks ads that you’ve engaged with. So it may not be a game changer, as such, but it provides another means to track your Facebook activity.
And for Facebook, it also adds another means to keep tabs on your interests.
As noted in the above screenshot, Meta may also use your Link History information to show you more relevant ads in the app.
Which is a price that most users are accustomed to by now, but it is worth noting that this listing could influence the ads you’re being shown. So if you don’t like the ads you’re seeing, visit your “Ad Preferences”, then also delete any links to things that may be skewing your targeting.
Meta hasn’t said when the Link History Archive option will be rolled out to all regions, but it’s in the process of being expanded to all mobile users.