At the bottom of your Facebook Story, you may have seen a message saying saw by one other or 1 other people viewed this story . The Other viewers on Facebook is a mystery for some but in this post, we ll break it down so you know what this means and how to identify those who are on this list.
What Does Other Viewers Mean on Facebook Story
People that watch your story but aren t friends with you on Facebook are referred to as Other viewers when you post a public story.
On the other hand, a private story can only be seen by the people you ve chosen to share it with. So if your story is private, then Other viewers will not be an option. If your story is public, you will see Other viewers beneath it.
Making your stories private restricts access to your stories to just those who you re friends with. The only way to ensure that no one other than friends see your story is for you to make it private.
Can You See Others in Facebook Story?
Facebook has opted to keep the identity of anyone in the Other viewers list private. As a result, you ll only know how many other viewers there are, but you won t be able to find out who they are.
How to Make Facebook Stories Private
Anything you post to your Facebook story will appear on Facebook and Messenger and be shared with the same audience on both platforms. If you don t want everyone to see your Facebook stories, you can choose who sees them by changing your Privacy Settings.
How to See Others Viewers In Facebook Story
When you open the Facebook story you ve posted, you ll see the total number of viewers. The number of Other viewers is shown at the bottom of your story s viewer list.
Facebook does not display the identities of those Other viewers. You will be able to see the total number of individuals who have watched your story, including those who are not Facebook friends with you.
When you set your story privacy to the public, people who are not on your friend list may view it. You ll be able to see how many of these followers have watched your story on Facebook. Still, Facebook does not reveal the identities of these followers, so you ll only be able to figure out the number of people that have viewed your story but aren t Facebook friends with you.
Because Facebook does not publish the names or profiles of those Other viewers, you will be unable to see their profiles.
Here s how to see how many other viewers there are under your story
- Launch the Facebook app.
- After ensuring that the privacy is set to public, click on Create Story to upload a story.
- Once the story has been posted, wait a few minutes before clicking on it from your profile.
- Below the story, you ll find a list of viewers ( Other viewers) who aren t on your friend list but have watched your story.
1. Have You Sent Your Story To Anyone You re Not Friends With
If you ve sent the story to someone you re not friends with, they won t get shown in the list of people who viewed it, but rather in the Other viewers section. So, if you have sent your story to anyone, not on your friend s list, then there s a chance that they ll be in the Other viewers.
2. Become Friends With A Bunch of People
Another way to see the other viewers list is to become friends with the people that you think are on this list. They re in the other viewers section because you re not friends with them on Facebook. So if you become friends with them, then they ll appear normally in the list of viewers who have viewed your story.
The downside of this is that you re going to have to become friends with a lot of people that you might not want to be friends with, but you think has viewed your story. If you do decide to be friends with them, then, you ll be able to see their profile in your story views.
3. Put A Story Asking Who Viewed It That You re Not Friends With
Another way to find out who s on the other viewer s list is by putting on your story asking who viewed it. If you put in your story asking who viewed it, people you re not friends with who viewed your story might say, i viewed your story . Although this is extremely unlikely, it ll let you know that they re part of the other viewers list.
4. Ask The Person Who Sent It To Their Friends
Someone might have sent your story to their friends which are people that you re not friends with. Because of this, they ll appear in the other viewers list. To fix this, you can ask whoever you suspect to have sent the story. Simply send them a message saying, did you send my story to a bunch of your friends? If they say yes and you re familiar with who their friends are, this will let you know who is in the other viewer s list.
5. Ask Your Viewers If They ve Sent It to Anyone
If you want to know who the Other viewers are, you can simply put up a story asking, if you ve sent my story to anyone and we re not friends, send me a message by replying to this story. Some people who are brave enough will own up and say that they ve sent it to their friends.
This will cause people who aren t friends with you to send you a message saying they ve sent it to their friends. So you ll now be more clued up on who s in the Other viewers section because if you know who their friends are, or if they tell you, then you ll know.
How to Stop People You re Not Friends With From Seeing Your Story
1. Change the Story Settings to Friends
You can restrict your story from being seen by accounts other than your Facebook friends. To do so, change your story s Privacy setting to Friends.
When you upload a story with the privacy settings set to Friends, that story is not visible to the general public. Only Facebook accounts on your friend list have access to that story, i.e., only your Facebook friends can see the story and no one else.
You can change your story privacy if you do not want non-friend users to access your Facebook story. You need to set it to Friends so only your Facebook friends can see it.
2. Tell People Not to Share the Story
There are many reasons why people share your Facebook story. Some people share it because they think it s funny, others do it because they think the story will be useful to whoever they send it to, and some do it because they don t have anything better to do.
Regardless of the reason, it s important to remember that you re the one who posted the story. If you don t want people to share your Facebook story, ask them not to share it so that people who aren t friends with you don t see the story.
3. Make Sure It s Not Something Viral
If you don t want people you re not friends with to be viewing your story, you need to make sure that it doesn t go viral. If it does go viral, this can cause a flood of people you don t know to view your story which will cause the Other viewers list to fill up.
Facebook is a platform that one can use to share a story. It can be anything from a wedding to a vacation. However, it can also be something viral.
The problem with going viral is that your story may not be something you want to share with the world. To make sure your story doesn t go viral, make sure it s not something that goes viral to begin with. You can get your friend s opinion about your story before you it.
4. Set the Story to Custom and Choose Certain People
The same privacy options available for Facebook statuses are available for Facebook Stories. By setting them before you share, you can control who sees it.
- Choose the down arrow to the right of Your Story.
- Choose Friends and Connections, Public, or Friends Only. If you need it, there is also a Custom option.
- When you re finished, click Share.
The Public option, like other Facebook settings, makes your story visible to anyone. The Friends and Connections option limits your story to individuals you know, while Friends only restricts it to people who you re friends with. The Custom option is a list that allows you to select who sees your story.
You can also change these options after you post your story.
- Choose Your Story from the app s menu.
- Select the three-dot menu icon, followed by Edit Story Settings.
- Change the settings as described above and click Save.
Why Can t You See Viewers Who You re Not Friends With
Privacy Reasons
The primary reason why there isn t an official way to see the other viewers is for privacy reasons. It would be a public relations nightmare for Facebook if there was a way for non-friends to view your story and users to know about it. We all look up friends, former friends, exes, and coworkers on Facebook, and we don t want other people to know when we do.
The List Will Be Too Long
Another reason why Facebook probably hasn t made it possible for you to see the Other viewers list is that the list would end up being too long, especially if you were a popular creator, and loads of people who aren t your friend would be viewing your Facebook story and this would cause the list to be insanely long.
This means that if you re looking for anyone specific on the list, then you won t be able to find them because of the sheer amount of people on the list.
Facebook Thinks You Don t Care To See Them
The viewers list will be too long if everyone who you re not friends lists viewed your story, so Facebook groups them as Other viewers so that you can focus on your friends that saw your story.
It s likely that you don t care about who you re not friends with viewing your story more than people you re friends with. So Facebook is using the space to only show you those who you re friends with rather than a bunch of people you potentially won t even know.
They re Not Who You ve Intended to Share Your Story With
People want to share their lives with people they know and love. Sharing a story on Facebook is a great way to do this. However, some people are not who you ve intended to share your story with.
For example, people can stalk your profile, find your phone number, and harass you. Because the people in the Other viewers section are not who you ve intended to share your story with, Facebook doesn t bother showing you who s in this list.
You can make your profile private so that there are no Other viewers.
Conclusion
Knowing who has seen your stories is critical for both privacy and safety. Unfortunately, if you change your privacy option to Public, people who you re not friends with won t be able to see who viewed your story.
The following are the essential takeaways from the article:
If you change the privacy option on your story to Public, everyone on Facebook and Messenger will be able to view it. Other viewers are people who are not your friends on Facebook.
You can t see who Other viewers are because Facebook purposefully hides them. If someone blocks you immediately after seeing your story, you ll see 1 viewer in your story views since their profile will be hidden from you.
In conclusion, it is strongly advised that you set your privacy option to Friends. Otherwise, people who you re not friends with will be able to see your story, and you will not be able to identify them.
