Introducing SparkPeople 'Friend Feed' Enhancements

By , SparkPeople Blogger
Good morning, SparkPeople!

We've been hard at work revamping some of your favorite SparkPeople features to make them more fun and useful. Today we are happy to announce an update to your Friend Feed.

If you're not familiar with it, your Friend Feed shows you the recent activity of your SparkFriends: things like new blog posts they've made, their status updates, and even when they've won a trophy. You can find a shortened view of your Friend Feed in Step 3 on your Start page, or see it in full by clicking "Friend Feed" under the "Community" tab at the top of the site.

Here's what you'll notice in the newly redesigned Friend Feed:
  • A new design. We've cleaned up the Friend Feed so it's a little easier on the eyes (fewer hyperlinks, etc.).
     
  • Easy options to "hide" certain activities (or people). If you don't care about seeing how many SparkPoints your friends earn, when they join a new SparkTeam—or any other Friend Feed activity, you can now easily hide all of those activities from showing up in your feed. Simple click the dropdown arrow next to the activity (see image below) you don't wish to see, and select the option to "Hide All" of that activity in the future. Related, you can now hide any friend from showing up in your Friend Feed (without having to "unfriend" them) using the same dropdown. (Your friend will not be notified if they were hidden.)

  • Fitness tracking! We always want to celebrate and encourage fitness, so now any exercises that your friends track will show up in your feed. This is a great way to see what people are doing to be successful—and cheer them on!
When you surround yourself with people doing healthy things, research shows that you are more likely to adopt their habits, too. Your Friend Feed keeps you in the loop with all the healthy actions your SparkFriends are taking—so you can be motivated, inspired and encouraging! Remember that you can choose which of your personal activities show up in your friends' feeds. To edit what other members see about you, click here.
 
We hope that you enjoy these new Friend Feed enhancements. Please share your comments or feedback below—and be on the lookout for even more SparkPeople updates in the near future!

UPDATE 2/13/14: Thanks for the feedback! We have added some constrasting color to the main Friend Feed page to help offset each update from the next. To answer a few of the other questions/concerns in the comments: You can easily hide all fitness from your feed by using the dropdown option shown and explained above. Also, all blog entries are still underlined--just like they used to be--so you should be able to see those just like you always have. We understand that any changes can be difficult when you're used to things a certain way. Thank you for your understanding and your feedback.