How to Disable Reels on Facebook (And What You Can Actually Control)

Facebook Reels are short-form videos that appear throughout your feed, on your profile, and in dedicated Reels sections across the app. For many users, they've become a significant — and sometimes unwelcome — part of the Facebook experience. If you're looking to reduce or eliminate Reels from your feed, here's what the platform actually allows, what it doesn't, and how different setups affect your options.

What Facebook Reels Actually Are

Facebook Reels are short videos, typically under 90 seconds, that Facebook surfaces algorithmically based on your activity, the pages you follow, and engagement patterns across the platform. They're not just posted by friends — Facebook actively recommends Reels from accounts you've never interacted with, similar to how TikTok or Instagram's Explore feed works.

Because Reels are embedded into Facebook's core feed architecture, there is no single setting that completely removes them. Facebook does not offer a native "disable Reels" toggle as of current platform versions. However, there are several meaningful ways to reduce their frequency and visibility.

Can You Completely Turn Off Facebook Reels? 🤔

The honest answer: not entirely, at least not through any official setting Facebook currently provides. Reels are a monetized, algorithmically driven feature, and Facebook treats them as part of the standard feed experience rather than an optional module.

What you can do is significantly reduce how often they appear, train the algorithm away from showing them, and in some cases use platform tools or third-party options to suppress them further. The effectiveness of each approach depends on your device, how you access Facebook, and how aggressively you apply the available controls.

Method 1: Use "Hide" and "Not Interested" on Individual Reels

This is the most widely available method and works on both the iOS and Android apps as well as the mobile browser.

1. When a Reel appears in your feed, tap the three-dot menu (⋯) in the top-right corner of the post.
2. Select "Hide video" or "Not interested in this Reel" depending on what your version of the app shows.
3. Repeat consistently across multiple Reels.

What this does: It signals to Facebook's algorithm that you don't want to see this type of content. Over time — typically days to a few weeks of consistent feedback — Reels frequency in your feed can drop noticeably. This is not immediate and requires repeated input.

Limitation: It doesn't eliminate Reels entirely, and the algorithm may reset or reintroduce them based on broader engagement patterns.

Method 2: Adjust Your Feed Preferences

Facebook's Feed Preferences settings let you prioritize certain accounts and types of content, which indirectly affects how often Reels surface.

• On the app, tap your profile picture → Settings & Privacy → Feed (or navigate directly to Feed Preferences)
• Prioritize friends and Pages whose text or photo posts you prefer
• Snooze or unfollow accounts that post primarily Reels

What this does: When you deprioritize video-heavy accounts and elevate accounts that post static content, the algorithm gradually shifts what it shows you. This reshapes your feed over time rather than blocking a content type outright.

Method 3: Use Facebook via Desktop Browser 🖥️

The desktop version of Facebook (accessed through a web browser on a PC or Mac) displays Reels differently than the mobile app. While Reels still appear, they tend to be less prominent and less frequent in the main feed compared to the mobile experience.

Additionally, desktop browsers support browser extensions — tools like News Feed Eradicator or Social Fixer — that can hide or heavily modify what appears in your Facebook feed, including Reels sections. These are third-party tools, not Facebook-native, and their reliability depends on:

• The browser you're using (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.)
• Whether Facebook has recently updated its code in ways that break extension compatibility
• Your comfort level installing and managing browser extensions

This is one area where technical comfort matters significantly. Users familiar with browser extensions will find this approach more manageable than those who aren't.

Method 4: Limit Time in the Reels Tab

Facebook has a dedicated Reels tab in the bottom navigation bar on mobile. While you can't remove this tab from the interface, you can simply avoid tapping it. The Reels that appear in your main feed are a separate surface from the full Reels tab experience.

If most of your Reel exposure is coming from the dedicated tab rather than your main feed, the fix may be simpler than you think — habit-based rather than settings-based.

The Variables That Determine Your Experience

How much control you actually have over Reels depends on several factors:

Facebook also updates its interface and algorithm frequently, which means the exact label or location of a setting in one version of the app may differ in another. If you can't find a specific option where guides say it should be, checking for a pending app update is often the first step.

What Actually Works vs. What Doesn't

Works over time:

• Consistently marking Reels as "Not Interested"
• Shifting your follows toward non-video content
• Using desktop with feed-modifying extensions

Doesn't work as a quick fix:

• One-time feedback to the algorithm
• Restricting data sharing (this affects ads, not content-type preferences)
• Turning off autoplay in video settings (reduces playback but doesn't remove Reels from the feed)

What's Still Out of Your Control

Even with aggressive use of every available tool, some Reels will still appear. Facebook's recommendation engine is designed to keep re-testing content formats with users, and Reels are a strategic priority for the platform. Sponsored Reels (ads in Reel format) are particularly persistent — user feedback tools have less effect on paid placements than on organic content.

How much that residual Reel presence bothers you — and which combination of the above approaches makes sense to use — comes down to how you use Facebook, which device or platform you primarily access it on, and how much time you're willing to spend adjusting settings versus modifying browsing habits.