You will soon be able to hide your Facebook status updates from your profile

Facebook is testing a feature that allows users to hide their status updates and other posts from their profiles when they post them, with messages still appearing in other people's news feeds.

The feature will allow users to post on Facebook without creating a permanent record on their own timelines, and is possibly intended to make people feel more comfortable about sharing things.

Currently, a Facebook status update or other post is published simultaneously into other users' news feeds, where they can like and comment, and onto that person's own timeline. Users can retroactively hide posts from timelines, but the new feature will allow posts to never appear in the first place.

A tick box underneath the status update bar labelled "Hide From Your Timeline" is being tested by some users. By hovering over it a message says that posts will appear in Facebook's news feed and within search results but not on a timeline.

The change reflects how people are using Facebook differently, seeing more posts through the news feed rather than visiting people's profiles themselves.

Rather than being a list of a person's recent activity, Facebook profiles often serve as a biography page, so status updates about a particular moment may not be relevant.