Device links
You can never be too careful when posting things on Facebook. Events and images intended to be shared with friends or family may accidentally become available to other eyes. There are settings intended to prevent this, but checking each post to confirm the “Private” status is a challenge.
Fortunately, Facebook has the option to let you see which of your uploads are visible to everyone. This article shows you how to view your Facebook profile like someone else would, giving you control over the content you make public.
View your Facebook profile as public on Windows, Mac or Linux
Viewing your profile as others see it is a simple process on a PC or Mac. To do so, follow these instructions:
- Open “Facebook” in a browser, then click the “upside down triangle” (Account Menu) in the upper right section.
- Select “View your profile” at the top.
- Click on the “horizontal ellipsis” (three horizontal dots) below the profile header.
- Choose “Profile and tagging settings.”
- Scroll down the right panel to the end. Next to the “eye icon”, click “Seen as” to see what others see on your profile page.
View your Facebook profile as public on Android/iOS/iPhone
Facebook Mobile allows you to see your Facebook profile as public as a browser can, although enabling it is slightly different. This is what you should do:
- Open the “Facebook application” and go to your “profile page” by tapping your “profile icon” or the “hamburger icon” (Top of the screen for Android or bottom of the screen for iOS).
- To access your profile menu, tap the “horizontal ellipsis” (three horizontal lines).
- Select “Seen as.”
- Your profile appears, displaying all publicly visible content.
Why would you want to see your profile as someone else?
Social media has drastically changed the way we communicate with others. It has made posting our daily thoughts and habits second nature. However, taking what we upload for granted can create many safety risks for you and your family and should not be ignored.
People underestimate the amount of data that a simple image shows. A road sign, a landmark, or even surrounding houses can reveal your location to anyone persistent enough to try to find it, not to mention all the location data in the image file.
If you post images to show your friends, that’s great, but it’s a pretty easy mistake to forget to change your privacy settings again once they become public. Viewing your profile as someone else allows you to see what posts you’ve made available to everyone else.
You can quickly decide whether these posts can be left on your public profile or later made private. The ‘View As’ option allows you to view all of your ‘public’ posts simultaneously and eliminates the tedious post-by-post inspection process.
Take control of what others see
If you viewed your profile and felt there was too much or too little information available for public view, you can select what others see. Of course, you can block people from seeing your profile at all, but you can also make some posts private and others public.
You can also restrict who can see which posts. For example, if you have friends on Facebook that you don’t want to see certain posts, you can restrict those people.
If you use the Seen as feature and you see a lot of content that you don’t want to show to everyone, you can make your account private. Fortunately, changing your profile from Public to Private (and vice versa) is simple. We have an article here that will guide you through all the steps.
To restrict posts that other users see, tap the three dots icon next to the post. Then select Edit privacy. Tap friends except…and add the friends you don’t want to see your posts.
Frequent questions
Here are the answers to more questions you may have about Facebook’s View As feature.
How do I exit the View As function?
When you’re done inspecting what others can see on Facebook, you can easily return to your normal Facebook view. All you need to do is click or tap Exit View As in the upper right corner.
Can I see my Facebook profile as a specific person?
Unfortunately not. Facebook used to offer the option to choose how to view your profile. You can choose Public or as a specific person. However, the company removed the feature around 2019.
The only way to see what someone else sees (aside from public view) is to log into your Facebook account and search their profile.
Track your loads
Social media has become so mundane that in modern times it is taken for granted. People post almost anything, from big celebrations to what they had for lunch. It’s essential to keep track of what you upload, as you don’t want to share things with people you don’t want to see.
