With the advent of social media, namely Facebook, sharing about one’s personal life has become increasingly common. But some details are more sensitive than others. And your relationship status certainly falls in that sensitive category. But does changing your relationship status on Facebook notify the other person?
If you remove your relationship status or change it to single or divorced, it will not notify anybody. It will also not appear on your timeline. But if you change the status to “In a relationship”, others can see it on your timeline or in the feed. You can change this by hiding your status.
In this article, we are going to go over how changing your relationship status works on Facebook and how it might show up on other people’s profiles. We will guide you through the steps to hide your relationship status as well.
How to Change Your Relationship Status on Facebook Without Notifying the Other Person?
If you change your relationship status to Single, widowed, or divorced, then the change will not show up on other people’s feeds or on your timeline. But if you change it to In a Relationship, Facebook will notify other people.
To prevent this from happening, you need to change your privacy settings before you change the status. Now, the steps are different for mobile users and PC users.
How to Change Relationship Status on a PC
- Open Facebook on a browser.
- Click on your profile picture in the top right corner. Select your profile.
- Click “About”.
- Select “Family & Relationship”.
- Click on the “Pencil” icon on the right.
- Select your preferred status from the drop-down menu.
- Below the status bar, you will find the option for visibility. By default, it is set to “Public”.
- Click on it and then select “Custom”. From here, you can determine who gets to see your status and who does not.
- In the “don’t share with” section, you can type in the name of your partner or ex-partner. Doing so means that no further notification will be sent to that person through Facebook. You can also list the names of other people from whom you also like to keep this information.
- Now, click on save.
How to Change Relationship Status on a Mobile
- Open the Facebook app on your mobile.
- Tap on your profile picture. This will take you to your timeline.
- Tap on “Edit public details”.
- Tap on “Edit” next to details.
- Scroll down and tap on “Relationship Status”.
- Tap on the “Pencil” icon on the right.
- You can select your status from the drop-down menu.
- On the top right corner, you will find another drop-down option. Tap on it and select “Only me”.
- Now, save and exit to your profile.
If you follow these steps correctly, whatever changes you make in regards to your relationship status will remain hidden from the other person.
Who Can See Your Relationship Status?
A great thing about the relationship status feature on Facebook is that you have complete control over it. You get to choose who can see this status and who cannot. You can do this by adjusting your privacy settings.
For example, the feature is set to “Public” by default. This means that anybody on Facebook can see your relationship status if they come across your profile.
You can change it to “Friends”. This way all the people on your friend list will be able to view your relationship status. Or you can simply choose the “Only Me” option. Then, no one will be able to see your relationship status without accessing your account. Any changes you make to that status will also remain anonymous.
How to Hide Relationship Status?
So, you have changed your relationship status without notifying the other person. But what if you want to hide it from people altogether? Well, you can do that too.
For Computers
- Open Facebook on a browser.
- Click on your profile picture in the top right corner. Select your profile.
- Click “About”.
- Select “Family & Relationship”.
- Click on the “Pencil” icon on the right.
- Select your preferred status from the drop-down menu.
- Below the status bar, you will find the option for visibility. By default, it is set to “Public”. It will have the icon of the earth to symbolize that this information is accessible to the general public.
- Click on it and then select “Only Me”.
- Now, click on save.
For Mobile
- Open the Facebook app on mobile.
- Tap on your profile picture. This will take you to your timeline.
- Tap on “Edit public details”.
- Tap on “Edit” next to details.
- Scroll down and tap on “Relationship Status”.
- Tap on the “Pencil” icon on the right.
- You can select your status from the drop-down menu.
- On the top right corner, you will find another drop-down option. Tap on it and select “Only me”.
- Now, save and exit to your profile.
Now, your relationship status will no longer be visible to others. When people see your profile, your relationship status will not appear. Moreover, any change you make to this status, whatever that may be, will not notify other people through your timeline or feed.
Does Updating Relationship Status on Facebook Show Up on Timeline?
Any update to your relationship status can show up on your timeline, provided that you have made that information accessible. If the setting for this detail is set on “Public” or “Friends”, then any update you make will appear on your timeline. It will also notify your friends that you have changed your status.
If the privacy setting is kept to “Only me”, then no notification will be sent out. So, if you want to share your updated relationship status, make sure that the setting is switched to “Public” or “Friends”.
However, if you changed the status to “single”, “divorced”, or “widowed”, the update will not appear on your timeline or on anybody’s feed. This will be the case regardless of your privacy settings. If you make this information accessible, the only way people can view it is by going to your profile and checking your relationship status.
How Do You Check the Relationship Status of Others on Facebook?
This entirely depends on the profile setting of that person. If he or she makes this information public (i.e., the “public” option in settings), then you will be able to view that status by going to their profile. You do not have to be listed as a friend of that person to do so.
If, however, that person has switched the status to just “Friends”, then you need to be added as a friend before you can see it.
To see a person’s relationship status, you can simply go to About and then go to “Family and relationships”. If the status is visible and you are eligible, then you will be able to see it with no problem.
Do You Need to Provide Your Relationship Status on Facebook?
As with many of Facebook’s features, the relationship status is optional. You can fill this part out when you first make your account. But if you are uncomfortable or simply do not care, then you can choose not to give any status. The status will appear blank to others.
However, after you change your relationship status once, you cannot remove it. You will have to pick one of the options from the drop-down menu. In this case, if you are uncomfortable with sharing this information, simply select the “Only me” setting. This way, the status will remain on your profile. But other people will not be allowed to see it.
To conclude, a person’s relationship with someone is a very private and sensitive issue. And Facebook understands this. As such you can easily hide your relationship status from others or keep it low-profile.
