Ever since they were rolled out in 2017, Stories have been a popular feature on Facebook. And this popularity is not surprising, provided that such has been the craze of this feature on most other platforms. If you like using Facebook and regularly share your stories with your friends and followers, you must be aware of how you can customize the viewership of your stories in just a few taps. Facebook allows you to decide who can and cannot view your story by changing the privacy settings.
You can also see the people who have seen your story and those who have liked or commented on it. But sometimes, the story viewers list behaves a bit differently, due to which you cannot see who viewed your story.
Of late, many users have been complaining about such an issue on Facebook that prevents them from seeing the identity of the user who viewed their story. If you are one of them, you must be confused about why the Viewers list shows you “1 other viewer” or “2 other viewers” instead of the names of these viewers.
In this blog, we will talk about why you might not see your Facebook story viewers for some stories and how you can fix this issue.
Who can see your Facebook story?
Sharing stories on Facebook is pretty simple. Once you upload your story on Facebook, all your friends will be able to view your story by default, and you can view the list of friends who have viewed the story.
But Facebook provides a lot of customization options, allowing you to choose who can and who can’t see your story. The decision rests with you.
The viewership of your story is set to Friends by default. So, when you share your story, all your friends can see it if they want unless you change the privacy settings of your stories. If you want to exclude someone from the list of your story viewers, you can do that by changing the Story Privacy settings.
Similarly, you can let your story be visible to everyone on Facebook by changing the viewership to Public. As soon as you change the viewership to the public, anyone on Facebook and Messenger who can view your profile can see your story by tapping on your profile picture.
The Custom option of the story viewership lets you choose specific people you want to show your story to. Any story shared with the Custom setting is visible only to the selected set of people, who can be your friends or people you have chatted with.
You can change your story audience to Public, Friends, or Custom as you like, and the respective audience can view your story.
How to see who viewed your story
Seeing your story viewers on Facebook is a piece of cake. To see your story viewers on Facebook, you just need to view your story and swipe up on it. You will see the number of viewers and the names of those viewers on a list.
But can you see everyone who has viewed your story? Yes, and No. Let’s see how.
Why Can’t I See Who Viewed My Story On Facebook?
Whenever a friend views your Facebook story, you can easily know that they have viewed it by swiping up your story as described above. But if you cannot see who viewed your story, it can mean one of these things:
- No one has viewed your story yet.
- Your internet connection is slow.
- There is a technical glitch or bug in Facebook.
- People who are not your friends have viewed your story.
While the first two reasons are trivial and can be solved without any help, you can try uninstalling and reinstalling Facebook to fix any bugs or glitches.
It is a bit tricky when it comes to the fourth reason. When you set the story audience to Public, you can see the number of your story viewers as usual. But when you tap on the number to see the list of viewers, not all viewers always appear on the list. At the bottom of the list of visible viewers, you would see something like Others•5.
This number at the bottom represents the number of viewers who are not your friends but have seen your story. You cannot see their identity, just the number. But they can see your story because you have set it to Public.
So, whenever you upload a story for everyone to see, you might not see all the viewers’ names. Those you can see on the Viewers list are your friends who have seen the story, while the remaining viewers are not in your friend list.
Can you see who appears as “Others” in the story viewers list?
We know you might want to see who has viewed your story on Facebook. But sadly, there is no way to see the “others” who have seen your story. Since your story is available for the world to see, anyone can knowingly or accidentally view your story and be counted as one of the “others” at the end of the Viewers list. But you can’t see them as they are not your friends.
How to see the complete list of people who viewed your story
There is only one way you can ensure that you see everyone who viewed your story– by not allowing “others” to see your story in the first place!
In other words, ensure that the next time you share a story, the audience is not set to Public. This way, people who are not your friends won’t be able to see your story. This might not seem the best option, but if you don’t like people anonymously viewing your story, you can prevent that only by changing your story audience.
Follow these steps to change who can view your story on Facebook:
Step 1: Open Facebook and log into your account.
Step 2: Tap on the Create Story banner on the Home tab of your account.
Step 3: On the Create Story page, tap on the Settings icon at the top right. You will land on the Story Privacy page.
Step 4: Change the story audience to Friends or Custom. You can also hide your story from some friends by selecting Hide story from under Friends.
Note: Once you change these settings, the changes will apply to both your current story as well as your future stories.
Closing thoughts
Stories are one of the most popular ways to share your photos, videos, and updates on Facebook. Besides sharing your stories with your friends, you can also share them with anyone, even if they are not your friends.
But in such cases, you can only see the names of some of those who viewed your story. Sharing your stories with everyone allows non-friends to view your story, but you cannot see the names of users who are not your friends. Although you cannot know who these anonymous viewers are, you can prevent them from seeing your story by changing the privacy settings.
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