The new "Follow" bar
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Hi,
Is there any way to disable that annoying “Follow” bar in the lower right corner of my blog?
Honestly, it just doesn’t look good on mobile. I can tolerate the thing on desktop, but on mobile, it drives me crazy.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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You will need to go into WP Admin (bottom of left hand side menu)
Get into Settings >> Reading
Uncheck “Show follow button to logged out users.”
Somehow this option is not visible in the new admin, hence you will need to get into WP Admin
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Well, I tried that option, but it doesn’t rid me of the white “Follow” bar in the lower right. I’m not sure what to do now.
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@thejasonwatts – just to be clear, you disabled the Follow Blog button to logged out visitors in your Reading settings as Nagpai described https://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/reading-settings/#follower-settings but the button still appears? (It will always appear to logged in users.)
If that is the case, then please return here and add the MODLOOK tag in the Tags section of the forum thread sidebar for Staff assistance with this issue or an update on the behavior of this feature.
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@thejasonwatts thanks for your kind words. like @justjennifer mentioned, the Follow button can be disabled for logged out users.. However as we can see from your site, while the explicit “Follow” link is removed, we still see a button with dots.
Maybe the staff can help here since i couldnt find a help topic either about this issue.
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Hi there,
The action bar that appears for logged in users was recently added for logged out users as well. That bar not only contains a follow button, but also links to report content on sites, information about your theme, and a link to log into your site. This replaced the old logged-out follow button which could be disabled, but the new action bar cannot be disabled at this time.
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I didn’t spend time getting the look of the blog the way I want it on mobile just to have WordPress arbitrarily add an annoying pop-up bar.
It looks terrible on other blogs, too.
I’m very unhappy about this, and you’re losing a customer, because I’m going to start looking into moving everything away from WordPress. 👎
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We added that feature after receiving many requests for a way for logged out users to follow sites, and also for an easy way to log into the dashboard from a site’s front end. It actually bothered a significant number of users that there was no follow option for logged out visitors on mobile.
We don’t arbitrarily add features on WordPress.com, but every new feature is the result of numerous requests, followed up by research and user testing and feedback. I’ve also already passed your feedback along to the developers about wanting the option to hide it. You’re not the first person who requested that, but no change in this feature will come until we’ve researched the overall impact of adding that option.
Once this feature has been finalised that doc will be updated :)
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I understand the desire for the feature from certain users. What I don’t understand is why the rest of us are forced into it.
I liked the way my blog looked previously, and I already have a subscribe button in the sidebar.
I sincerely hope this feature is made optional very soon.
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I hope there is a simple checkbox provided in the settings to enable or disable this feature.
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Me too, @nagpai!
Honestly, it’s not a bad feature. I might be inclined to use it if I could match the color to my blog, instead of being stuck with white. My background is black, and the white bar draws the eye immediately to the bottom of the page. It’s distracting.
However, even if we can eventually change the color of the action bar, I still think it should have a disable option for those who don’t want it for aesthetic reasons, or because they’re happy with their subscribe widget.
My blog isn’t spectacular, but I’ve worked hard to make everything look at least semi-professional, and put a lot of thought into the way it looks on desktop and mobile.
It’s nice that the action bar disappears as you scroll down, but when it pops back up, it becomes a distraction from the content on mobile.
Anyway, I hope to see changes made to this feature soon.
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I might be inclined to use it if I could match the color to my blog, instead of being stuck with white. My background is black, and the white bar draws the eye immediately to the bottom of the page.
That is a very good suggestion. I’ll make sure the developers working on this see it.
As for making it optional, as I’ve said above there have been other requests for this, but it will take some work to add such an option and the developers are still looking into it.
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I heard back from a developer and it sounds like adding colour options might not be that simple, though they’re considering the idea.
As you have a Premium plan you can also use custom CSS to change the colours of the action bar. I tried finding the code to do that, but it’s a bit beyond my skill level in CSS. Someone in our CSS forum might be able to help with that, though:
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/forums/css-customization
So that’s another option you could consider.
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FWIW I had an opportunity today to view a WPcom site while on my mobile phone and the Action Bar retracted and disappeared as I scrolled down. So at least on my phone (Galaxy S4), it is not a fixed “in your face” feature.
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On all platforms it’s supposed to disappear when you scroll down and reappear if you scroll back up. If it doesn’t do that it’s a bug. But I can understand some people wanting to hide it completely on mobile screens where it’s more noticeable than on a big monitor :)
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