What does it mean when your Facebook story says hidden?

You are more likely to find all your friends and even distinct relatives on Facebook than on any social media platform. And that’s why it makes sense not to share all your Facebook stories with every person on the friend list.

Facebook offers an option to hide stories from specific users on the platform. Here’s how you can use it.

Hide Facebook Story from Someone

You need to tweak a setting in the Facebook app to hide all the upcoming stories from specific friends. Follow the steps below.

Step 1: Open Facebook on your iPhone or Android.

Step 2: Tap on the hamburger menu.

Step 3: Scroll down and select Settings.

Step 4: From Audience and visibility, tap on Stories.

Step 5: Go to the Story Privacy menu.

Step 6: Select ‘Hide story from’.

Step 7: Unlike Instagram and Snapchat, Facebook won’t showcase the entire friends’ list here. You can search for someone and add them to the story exception.

You will see all the friends you want to hide stories from. From now on, whenever you upload a new story on the social platform, selected friends won’t be able to see them in Facebook or Messenger app.

There is another method to access Facebook story privacy options as well. It’s much easier than following half the dozens of steps above.

Step 1: From your Facebook feed menu, select Create story button.

Step 2: Tap on the Settings gear at the top, and it will directly take you to the Story privacy menu.

You can go to the Hide story from option and make your Facebook stories disappear for selected friends.

Share Stories With a Group of Friends Only

This is quite like Instagram’s Close Friends feature. When you have thousands of friends on Facebook, it can be difficult to filter out dozens of them. Instead, you can create a limited group of friends on Facebook and share your stories with them only. Here’s what you need to do.

Step 1: Open Facebook and select Create Story option.

Step 2: Tap on the Settings icon at the top and open Story privacy options.

Step 3: Tap on Custom and you will find a friends list from the following menu.

Step 4: Select friends with whom you want to share all Facebook stories.

After you make changes, your Facebook story will remain invisible to everyone else (except your selected friends from the custom menu).

If you have enabled the ‘Always share to Instagram’ toggle, your uploaded Facebook stories will be visible to all your Instagram followers. If you want to utilize the same privacy function on Instagram, check out how to hide a story from someone on Instagram.

Unhide Story from Someone on Facebook

If you have a change of heart, you can unhide a story from someone on Facebook.

Step 1: From the Facebook home menu, select Create story and tap on the settings icon at the top.

Step 2: Go to ‘Hide story from’ and uncheck friends from the list.

Hit Done at the top, and you are good to go with story sharing with everyone.

Hide Story from Someone – FAQS

What Happens to Current Facebook Stories?

Your current Facebook stories remain unaffected by the change. You need to delete the current story and upload it again. Only then the story will hide from selected friends.

Can Hidden Users See My Facebook Posts?

You are only hiding Facebook stories from friends. Your same friends will continue to see your posts, pictures, and other details on Facebook.

Will My Friends Get Notifications When I Hide Facebook Stories from Them?

Hiding a story from someone is strictly a privacy add-on. Your friends won’t get any notification about the move. Your friends can make a guess when they don’t see your Facebook story for a long time.

Will I Remain Friends With Them?

Yes, you will remain friends with all the users, whether you hide them from story viewing or not. This means these people can see your profile, upload photos, and reach you via Facebook Messenger.

Remain Anonymous on Facebook

There can be times when you don’t want to share the latest vacation pictures with all your friends on Facebook. You can either exclude some friends from your stories or go ahead and create a close circle to share all the Facebook stories with them only. How are you planning to use this neat privacy add-on on Facebook? Share your preference in the comments below.

Not all communications on Facebook are welcome. The social networking site gives you the opportunity to remove stories and updates from your news feed by hiding them. You can also use the hide button to remove individual posts and stories from your Facebook Timeline or Facebook Page if someone adds an item that you don't want to display, or you want to clear certain stories, photos or updates you've previously posted.

Accessing the Hide Button

1. You can access the Hide button on your Facebook Timeline, Facebook Page or the homepage news feed. In the news feed, the Hide option appears in a pull-down menu while hovering your mouse over a post and clicking the down-arrow button . On your Timeline or Facebook Page, the "Hide from Timeline" or "Hide from Page" option appears when you click the "Edit or Remove" button with the pencil icon in a story.

Timeline and Facebook Page Hide Button Functions

1. Clicking the "Hide from Timeline" or "Hide from Page" button immediately removes the selected story, photo or update from view. However, using the hide feature doesn't delete the item completely; the hidden story will still appear in other places on Facebook, including news feeds and in search results. If you also want to remove the hidden story from Facebook, click the "Delete" link that appears in place of the hidden story on your Timeline or Page.

News Feed Hide Button Functions

1. Selecting "Hide" on a story that appears in your Facebook homepage news feed removes the item from the news feed. The Hide feature is useful if you get swamped with game requests or app updates from your friends or contacts, and you want to remove these to declutter your feed. After hiding a story, Facebook gives you additional options that can help you to organize the content that appears in your news feed. These include hiding all stories from a particular app, friend or Facebook Page, so that you won't see their updates in the future.

Edit News Feed Settings

1. If you change your mind and decide that you want to start seeing updates from friends or apps that you've previously hidden, you can unhide them in the News Feed settings screen. Hover your mouse over the "News Feed" button in the sidebar menu, and then click the "Edit Settings" button with the pencil icon. In the "Unhide posts from" section, click the "X" button next to the app, friend or page that you want to unhide to remove them from the list, and then click "Save".

   What does hidden on Facebook story mean?

   Clicking the "Hide from Timeline" or "Hide from Page" button immediately removes the selected story, photo or update from view. However, using the hide feature doesn't delete the item completely; the hidden story will still appear in other places on Facebook, including news feeds and in search results.

   How do you see hidden stories on Facebook?

   You can view things (like posts, photos and videos) that you've hidden on your profile using activity log. Tap in the top right of Facebook, then tap your name. Tap then tap Activity Log. Tap Filter, then tap Hidden from profile to review.

   What does hidden mean in stories?

   Note: When you hide Instagram Stories from certain people, they won't be able to see anything you post to your story in the future. Hiding Instagram Stories from someone is also different from blocking them and doesn't prevent them from seeing your profile and posts.

   Can someone still see your Facebook story if you hide it from them?

   Tap to select the people you'd like to hide your story from. Finally, tap on Done or at the top, then tap on Save. If you've placed someone on your restricted list, they won't be able to see your story.