Hate Facebook mobile ads? Now you can hide them

The social network lets users hide some mobile ads, with even more ad-nixing options on the way.

by Donna Tam

 May 2, 2013 2:17 PM PDT

(Credit: Screenshot by Donna Tam/CNET)

Facebook is letting mobile users hide ads in their News Feeds, the company confirmed today.

This applies to the ads that Facebook Pages share featuring photos or links, and is available on iOS, Android, and the mobile Web (Pages are Facebook profiles for brands or public figures). The feature, which was already available on the desktop, has been live for about six months now, according to a representative. Just click the "x" button in the top right of the advertisement.

The Atlantic noted this change after writing an article about how annoying the Facebook mobile ads were.

Additionally, more options are on the way. In the next two or three weeks, Facebook will start offering the "x" button for ads designed to get people to install mobile apps, and for ads that show up when your friends have "liked" a page.

These features will land on iOS first, followed by Android.

According to Facebook, it's about enhancing people's control over the content they see, while also letting advertisers better target customers. Targeting is important to Facebook, hence one of its latest ad products, custom audiences. That's a targeting tool that keeps "x-out" rates down by 15 percent, according to Facebook.