Navigating the Facebook Mobile Home Page

By Carolyn Abram from Facebook For Dummies, 4th Edition

Viewing a web page from your phone can be extremely difficult. Facebook offers a special home page just for mobile users so you can still experience the joys of Facebook right from your phone. On your mobile phone, open your browser application and navigate to m.facebook.com. Facebook designed this page specifically to work on a teeny-tiny screen.

Never go to www.facebook.com/ on your mobile phone. You’ll regret it.

If you use an iPhone, or one of a few other select phone types, entering www.facebook.com/ redirects you to a page designed for use with mobile phones.

After you log in, you see the mobile version of the Facebook Home page. Although the design of the mobile site is somewhat based on the design of the regular website, it has some significant differences. Some of the differences exist simply because of less space; the mobile site must cut to the chase while allowing you to get more information on a particular topic.

The other differences arise because people using Facebook on a mobile phone often have different needs than those at a computer. For example, one of the first pieces of information you find on a friend’s Profile is her phone number (if she has it listed) because if you’re looking up someone on a mobile phone, you may be trying to contact her by phone.

You’ll see these items in your Mobile Home page:

Facebook menu (three horizontal lines): The three horizontal lines at the top-left corner of the screen represent the drop-down menu with links to News Feed, Messages, Places, Events, Friends, Groups, Notes, Settings, and Help.
Friend Requests, Messages, and Notifications: The three icons across the top of your screen are used throughout the Facebook experience: Friend Requests, Messages, and Notifications.
All Stories: This button, at the top right of the screen, opens a list where you can choose whether to read All Stories, Status Updates, Photos, Links, Pages, Events, Videos, or the activities of a defined List or network of Facebook friends.
New Notifications and Birthdays: When you reach the mobile site, you find whether you have any upcoming Events or notifications right at the top of the Home page.
Status button: When you use Facebook from your mobile phone, you’re probably not sitting at your home office, workplace, or school. You may be trapped in jury duty, hanging with friends at a bachelorette party, or waiting in line for a roller coaster. Facebook makes it super-easy to update your status so you can spread the news the moment you’re doing something that you want people to know or when you want people to meet you.

Photo button: If you want to upload a photo to your Facebook account, you can tap this button and either use your built-in camera to take a photo (or video) or pick a photo from your mobile device photo library to upload to your page.
Check In button: If you want to let people know where you are, through Facebook, tap the Check In button to check in with your location and share that status on your Wall.
Mobile News Feed: Shows you the most recent stories that you would see on your computer. As you scroll down, you’ll get more and more stories, so you can keep reading to your heart’s content.