Lists are an optional way to you organize your friends on Facebook so you can filter the stories you see in News Feed or post an update for specific people from one part of your life, like your coworkers or friends who live near you.

To help you get started, you have lists for:
 Close Friends: You can add your best friends to this list to see more of them in your News Feed and get notified each time they post. You also have the option to turn these extra notifications off.
 Acquaintances: This list is for friends you don’t need to stay in close touch with. People on your acquaintances list will rarely show up in your News Feed. You can also choose to exclude these people when you post something, by choosing Friends except Acquaintances in the audience selector.
 Restricted: This list is for people you’ve added as a friend but just don’t want to share with, like your boss. When you add someone to your Restricted list, they will only be able to see your Public content or posts of yours that you tag them in.

Note: Your friends won’t get notified when you add them to these lists.

You also have smart lists and custom lists.

Smart lists are lists that update automatically based on info you have in common with select friends, like a school, job or city. So, if you live in San Francisco, you’ll have a list of all of your Facebook friends who live within 50 miles of San Francisco. You can change this distance to adjust the size of the list, or manually add or remove people from this list. This list updates automatically as your friends update their profiles (timelines). For example, if 10 of your friends live within 50 miles of San Francisco (according to their Facebook profile/timeline), they’ll be listed on your San Francisco smart list. If 2 other friends change their profile (timeline) to indicate that they also live within 50 miles of San Francisco, your smart list will automatically update to include them too.

You can also create custom lists to organize friends as you like. You choose who goes into these lists and what (if any) privacy restrictions apply. Note that you’re friends won’t get notified when you add them to custom lists.

You can still use your old custom lists, or you can merge these lists with your new lists. To see all of your lists, go to your home page and click the More link at the top of the Lists section (in the left column).

From here, you can hide lists from your home page, add your favorite lists to the Favorites section of your homepage, or delete lists you don't use.

No. Adding your friends to lists is optional. If you don't want to use your lists, you can hide them from your home page.

You can add individual friends to lists by hovering over the Friends button at the top of their profile (timeline) and selecting from the list names that appear. If you don't see the name of the list you're looking for, click the option to show all of your lists.

 

You can also edit your lists or create custom lists right from your home page:

1. Click the Home link (along the top-right of every Facebook page)
2. Find the list you want to edit in the left column, or click the More link next to Lists
3. Select the list you want to edit or click Create a List
4. Search for your friends in the search bar at the top of the page, or add people from the List Suggestions on the right

Note: When you add someone to a smart list for a school, workplace or city, your friend will have the option to add that information to their profile (timeline), too. For example, if you add one of your friends to your work list, they can choose to add that company to their profile (timeline). You should see a reminder about this the first time you add someone to one of your smart lists.

Yes. You can add or remove friends from any of your lists. You can also adjust the details that are used to create the list - like the age of friends who went to your school who may be classmates of yours.

To change this:

1. Go to your lists page (Home > Lists > More)
2. Click on the name of the list you want to edit
3. From the On This List section in the top-right corner, click (change)
4. Pick your own list restrictions (ex: friends living within 20 miles of San Francisco)
5. Click Save

When you add someone to a smart list, they can choose to add that information to their profile (timeline). For example, if you add one of your friends to your work list, they’ll have the option to add that company to the Education and Work section of their profile (timeline). You should see a reminder about this the first time you add someone to one of your smart lists. Note that even if your friend decides they don’t want this information on their profile (timeline), they will still be added to your list.

To add someone to a list when you send them a friend request:

1. Click Add Friend.
2. Hover over the Friend Request Sent box to see a list of your lists.
3. Select the lists you want to add this person to or click the New List link to create a new list. If you don't see the name of the list you're looking for, click the option to show all of your lists. Note: You can also cancel the friend request from this menu.
4. This person will be added to the lists you chose when they confirm your friend request.

Note: You can manage any new lists you create from your lists page.

To add someone to a list when you accept the friend request:

1. Click on the (at the top of every Facebook page) to see a list of your pending friend requests
2. On the request, select Confirm
3. Hover over the Friends button to see a list of your lists
4. Select the lists you want to add this person to. If you don't see the name of the list you're looking for, click the option to show all of your lists or click the New List link to create a new list.

Note: You can manage any new lists you create from your lists page.

 

To see what's going on with a specific group of your friends, find the Lists section in the left column of your home page and click on the list you want to see.

Lists are an optional way to organize your friends, sort your News Feed and reach (or exclude) specific people when you share things on Facebook. Your lists are unique to you. With lists you can see News Feed posts from just your closest friends or announce a garage sale to all of your friends in your current city.

Groups are communities for you and other group members to discuss common interests. Groups are shared spaces, so your soccer team can plan the season's roster together and share each other's photos from the championship.

To edit the name of one of your lists:

1. Go to your lists page (Home > Lists > More)
2. Click on the list you want to edit
3. Click the Manage List dropdown at the top of the page and select Rename List
4. Type in the new name and save your changes

When you change the name of a smart list, only you can see the new name. So if Bob changes the name of his San Francisco list to SF People and shares with that list, the friends on that list will still see “Bob’s San Francisco Friends” in the audience icon. Remember that when you share with a list, the friends you share with can only see the name of the list if it’s a smart list.

Note: Close Friends, Acquaintances and Restricted can’t be renamed because of their unique properties.

1. Go to your lists page (Home > Lists > More)
2. Click on the name of the list you want to keep
3. Click the Manage List dropdown and select Merge List
4. Choose the list you want to merge with the list you’re viewing and click Combine Lists
5. After you merge two lists, you’ll have one list with all the people on the list

Note: Because your smart lists and default lists have special behavior, you can’t merge them into another list. However, you can merge any custom list you create into another custom list, smart list, or default list.

To hide one of your lists from the left column of your home page:

1. Hover over the name of the list
2. Click the
3. Choose Hide from the dropdown menu

Remember that you can always see any of the lists you hide by clicking the More link at the top of the Lists section. If there are lists you always use, you can also add lists to your favorites.

To delete a list:

1. Go to your lists page (Home > Lists > More)
2. Click on name of the list you want to delete
3. Click on the Manage List dropdown and select Delete List

Note: You can’t delete default lists, but you can hide them from your home page. These lists will also stop appearing on your home page if you don't use them.

When you add one of your friends to your Close Friends list, you’ll automatically receive notifications about what that friend posts on Facebook. You can edit your notification preferences or turn off these extra notifications:

1. From your News Feed, find your Lists in the left-column
2. Click on the Close Friends list
3. Click on the Notifications dropdown at the top-right corner
4. Choose whether you want to turn off these extra notifications

Lists give you an optional way to share a post with a custom audience or exclude some friends from a post based on how well you know them.

You can always choose to share content with or hide content from one or more lists using the audience selector. Or you can share with everyone on one of your lists:

1. From your home page, find your Lists in the left-column.
2. Click on the name of the list you want to share with.
3. Choose one of the options from the top of the page (ex: Update Status).
4. Click Post to share with only the people on that list. Note that you can change the audience of your post later using the audience selector.

You can also add people to your Restricted list. When you add someone to your Restricted list, they will only be able to see your Public content or posts of yours that you tag them in.

People who can see a post you share can also see whether you chose Public (), Friends (+) (), or Custom () next to your post.

Important notes:

• If you chose to use Custom to include or exclude specific people from seeing your post, then only "Custom" will show next to your post. People will not be able to see the individuals you specified.
  
  
• If you choose to share with one of your default lists (Close Friends, Acquaintances, Restricted) or a custom list, the people on that list will be able to see the other people included on that list; however, they won’t be able to see the name of that list.
  
  
• If you choose to share with one of your smart lists, the people on that list will only be able to see the name of the list.

When you add someone to your Restricted list, they will only be able to see your Public content or posts of yours that you tag them in. So if you put your boss on your Restricted list, post a photo and choose Friends as the audience, your boss (and anyone else on Restricted) won’t see that photo. However, if you add a tag of your boss to the photo, we’ll let them know they’re in it. If someone else tries to tag your boss in one of your photos, you’ll get to approve this tag from your pending posts.

No.

Smart lists use the information you’ve added to the Education and Work and Current City sections of your profile (timeline). So if you list San Francisco as your current city, you’ll have a list with all of your friends who also list San Francisco as their current city. Smart lists update for you based on what your friends put on their profiles (timelines). You can also edit smart lists.

Note: Smart lists respect your privacy settings, so if you only have your current city visible to a few friends, those are the only friends who can have you listed on their current city list. Use the audience selector to choose who you share your basic information with.