Most of us have been there before. You break up with your girlfriend or boyfriend, and maybe choose to unfriend or even block them on the service, but traces of your relationship are still all over the place on your Timeline, for everyone to see. So, what do you do? Do you block them outright, which will remove all their posts and also hurt their feelings?
There’s got to be a better way to handle this first-world problem, don’t you agree? Facebook though about that, too, and it seems they’ve come up with an interesting solution.
Single again?
“When a relationship ends, we’ve heard from people that they sometimes have questions about the options available to them on Facebook,” writes the firm.
Changing your relationship status back to single will now give you options to also hide all posts from your ex. You can choose to see less of their posts in your News Feed, impose restrictions on what they can see on your profile (so they won’t be able to stalk you like before) and limit the photos, videos or status updates that a former partner will see—all without blocking or unfriending your former significant other.
For starters, you can choose to see your ex anywhere on Facebook—meaning their posts will show up in your News Feed and their name and profile picture in other places.
Or, opt to have their posts removed from your News Feed and you’ll no longer be prompted to tag them in photos and will actually need to visit a former partner’s profile to see what he or she has been up to.
See less of your ex
“See less of a former partner’s name and profile picture around Facebook without having to unfriend or block them,” explains Facebook. “Their posts won’t show up in News Feed and their name won’t be suggested when people write a new message or tag friends in photos.”
In addition, you can also edit who can see your ex’s past posts and untag yourself from posts with that person. Best of all, your ex won’t be notified after you make these changes.
“All of these tools are optional, and people will be able to access them in the help center anytime,” notes the social network.
Availability
These new tools are now being tested with a subset of Facebook’s users base in the United States on mobile. Based on your feedback and after making changes, the feature will roll out further.
Source: Facebook