Power users love keyboard shortcuts, as they are the fastest way to navigate any interface, without taking our hands off the keyboard. Usually, we will find shortcuts for the operating system and specific applications. There are, however, some Facebook keyboard shortcuts to speed up the use of the social network.
Unblock any international website, browse anonymously, and download movies and Mp3 with complete safety with CyberGhost, just for $2.75 per month:
How the Facebook keyboard shortcuts work
There are two categories of Facebook keyboard shortcuts.
The Access Keys will let us navigate to different parts of Facebook, from the Home and Profile screens to out notifications, account settings, and the official Facebook "Facebook page".
The Keyboard Shortcuts will work on the News Feed and the Messanger, getting nearly twenty functions at our fingertips.
Facebook Access keys
The confusing thing about the Access keys is that they depend on the browser. They also differ between the same browser on different operating systems, such as Firefox for Mac OS X and Firefox for Windows.
For each particular browser and OS, we need to press the appropriate key combination, replacing the # with the access key of our choice.
Key Combinations for different browsers
Chrome for Windows: Alt + #
Firefox for Windows: Shift + Alt + #
Internet Explorer: Alt + #, then Enter
Safari for Mac OS X: Ctrl + Opt + #
Chrome for Mac OS X: Ctrl + Opt + #
Firefox for Mac OS X: Ctrl + Opt + #
Firefox for Linux: Shift + Alt + #
As far as we can tell, the Access Keys won't work at all for Edge on Windows 10 and Chrome on Linux. The rest of the Facebook keyboard shortcuts will work just fine, though.
Access keys
Make sure to use the numbers above the keyboard letters, not the numeric keypad.
1 - Home
2 - Profile / Timeline
3 - Friends and Friend Requests
4 - Messenger
5 - Notifications
6 - Settings
7 - Activity Log
8 - Official "Facebook" Facebook Page
9 - Facebook Terms and Policies
0 - Help Center
m - New Message
Facebook Keyboard Shortcuts for the News Feed
The keyboard shortcuts below will work on our Facebook News Feed. They won't work on our timeline or any Facebook Pages and Groups.
These are standalone keypresses; we don't need to combine them with any other keys, and will work the same for any browser.
j and k - Scroll between News Feed stories
enter/return - Expand a selected story, if an expansion is available
p - Create a new status
l - Like or unlike the selected story
c - Comment on the selected story
s - Share the selected story
o - Open an attachment from the selected story, if there is one
/ - Search
q - Search chat contacts
? (Shift + /) - Open a list of these keyboard shortcuts while in News Feed
Facebook Keyboard Shortcuts for Messenger
For these shortcuts to work, we need to be on the full conversation view of the Messenger on https://www.facebook.com/messages/. They won't work on a simple chat window.
ALT + g - Search conversations
ALT + q - Show/hide keyboard shortcuts
ALT + Delete - Archive/Unarchive conversation
ALT + j - Mark as spam
ALT + m - Start a new message
ALT + i - Go to Inbox
ALT + u - Go to Other
Curiously, the Facebook help page that covers the Facebook keyboard shortcuts has this entire section wrong.
Facebook claims that all of the above shortcuts work with Ctrl, whereas they only work with Alt, both in Chrome and Firefox.
Will you be using the Facebook keyboard shortcuts?
Do you find the Facebook keyboard shortcuts useful to your navigation? Or do you prefer the traditional mouse navigation? Leave us a comment.
Support PCsteps
Do you want to support PCsteps, so we can post high quality articles throughout the week?
You can like our Facebook page, share this post with your friends, and select our affiliate links for your purchases on Amazon.com or Newegg.
If you prefer your purchases from China, we are affiliated with the largest international e-shops:
Leave a Reply