Flatbook for Chrome Gives Facebook the Simple, Ad-Free Layout We've Always Wanted

Chrome: Flatbook (formerly Facebook Flat) has been around for a while, but when the dev tipped us off to some changes he was making to it, we took another look. Sure enough, it looks great, and strips Facebook of a lot of the cruft that makes it difficult to navigate.

Of course, Flatbook doesn’t do things like make sure you actually see posts from your friends that Facebook decides you shouldn’t, but it does clean up the interface a lot. It strips out the silly ads and suggested people and groups from the right sidebar, and gives you a simple, flat, organized reading experience with quick links on the side to things like feeds and pages, Facebook Live videos around the world, and even a “profile visitors” section (that’s less “people who have looked at your profile” and more “people you’ve interacted with a lot recently.”)

There’s an additional sidebar that lets you jump right to things like your messages, apps, saved items and articles, friends, and so on, and you can toggle the right-side chat sidebar on and off with a click. To be fair, it’s no complete replacement for a tool like Social Fixer, which is much more powerful, but if you want a lighter touch, it’s worth a look. Hit the link below to try it out.