Facebook’s relationship status feature allows users to share whether they are single, in a relationship, engaged, married, in a civil partnership, in an open relationship, widowed, separated, divorced or in a complicated relationship. By default, your relationship status is visible to all of your Facebook friends and followers. However, Facebook does give you some options to limit who can see your relationship status.
Quick Answer
Yes, you can make it so only one specific person can see your relationship status on Facebook. To do this:
- Go to your Facebook profile and click on the About section
- Click on the pencil icon next to Relationship
- Instead of selecting one of the default relationship statuses, type in a custom one such as “In a relationship with [name]”
- Use the audience selector tool to customize your privacy settings
- Choose “Specific people” and type in the name of the one person you want to be able to see your status
- Click Save Changes
This will make your custom relationship status visible only to the one person you specified. Everyone else will simply see nothing in the relationship status section of your profile.
Selecting a Custom Relationship Status
The first step to limiting who can see your relationship status is to set a custom status rather than using one of the default options like “In a relationship” or “Married.” Here’s how:
- Go to your Facebook profile page and click on the About section
- Find the relationship status section and click on the pencil icon next to the word Relationship
- This will open up a box where you can enter a custom relationship status
- Type in something like “In a relationship with [name]” using the name of your partner
- You can also just type the person’s name on its own
- Avoid using one of the default status options like In a Relationship or Married
Creating a custom relationship status gives you more control over who can view it. The default options can be seen by your entire friend list by default.
Using the Custom Audience Selector
After setting a custom status, the next step is using the audience selector to control who can actually see it. Here’s how to use this tool:
- After typing your custom status, click on the audience selector button next to it. This looks like a small globe icon.
- A menu will pop up with several options for who can view your relationship status update.
- Choose the option for Specific People to precisely control who can see it.
- Start typing the name of the one person you want to be able to view your relationship status.
- Click on their name when it appears as a suggestion in the box.
- You can also use their Facebook ID number if you know it.
- Make sure the box does not list Public, Friends, or any other broad groups.
Using the audience selector in this way lets you specify exactly who can see your custom relationship status. Anyone not on the list will not be able to see that you have a status set.
The Dangers of Setting Your Profile to Public
When you first join Facebook, your profile settings default to Public. This means anyone on or off Facebook can see your info. Having a public profile poses several risks:
- Strangers can see personal info like your relationship status, hometown, family members, and more
- Public information can be accessed by anyone via search engines like Google
- Details like your hometown could help hackers guess security question answers or passwords
- Advertisers and companies can harvest your public data
- Future employers may view your info and make biased assumptions
- Stalkers or abusive exes can keep tabs on you
It’s always safer to lock down your Facebook profile, especially sensitive details like your relationship status. The public should not be able to view such personal information.
How to Check Your Current Privacy Settings
If you’re unsure who can currently see your info and relationship status, you can check your existing Facebook privacy settings. Here’s how:
- Click on the arrow in the top right corner
- Select Settings & Privacy
- Click on the Privacy Shortcuts menu on the left side
- This will show your current settings for things like:
- Who can see your future posts
- Who can see your friends list
- Who can look you up using your phone number or email address
- Click on About to view your profile visibility settings
- This is where you can see who can view your relationship status
- Click Edit next to relationship status to change the audience
Checking these settings regularly can help ensure you don’t accidentally share anything too widely. You may need to modify the settings over time.
Relationship Status Privacy and Teens
It’s especially important for teens to keep their relationship status private and avoid oversharing on Facebook. Here are some reasons why:
- Teen relationships tend to be fleeting, so a public status can be embarrassing later
- Nosy extended family members don’t need to know about a new boyfriend or girlfriend
- Keeping statuses private prevents unwanted questions and gossip
- A public teen relationship status can invite bullying or unwanted jokes
- Private settings give teens more control over who knows what
- It keeps details away from strangers, advertisers, future colleges/employers
Parents may also want to guide their teens to keep this info limited to close friends only. Teens should learn responsible sharing habits early on.
Using Facebook’s Limit Past Posts Tool
Facebook has a tool called Limit Past Posts that lets you restrict old posts to only certain people. This can be useful for removing relationship statuses from public view. Here’s how it works:
- Go to Facebook Settings & Privacy
- Click on the Privacy Shortcuts menu
- Select Limit Past Posts
- You’ll see a list of your previous posts – click Limit Old Posts
- Adjust the audience selector as needed to limit visibility
- This will change who can see your past relationship statuses
- You can limit statuses individually or in bulk
- Use this to remove old statuses from public view
Limit Past Posts is an easy way to take old information like relationship statuses and make them visible only to select people. It’s better than outright deleting them.
Blocking Exes or Ex-Friends
Another way to gain more control over your relationship status privacy is by blocking ex romantic partners or former friends. Here’s how:
- Go to the profile page of the person you intend to block
- Click on the three dots in the upper right corner
- Select Block from the dropdown menu
- Click Confirm to finalize the block
- That person will no longer be able to view your profile or posts
- They also won’t be notified that you’ve blocked them
- You can still unblock them later if desired
Blocking prevents your ex or former friend from keeping tabs on your activities, new relationships, and updated status. Use blocking in combination with privacy settings for better control.
Avoiding Relationship Oversharing
It’s generally wise to avoid oversharing relationship details on Facebook in the first place. Here are some tips:
- Don’t rush to update your status after a new hookup or first date
- Keep personal or intimate details off social media
- Changes to “It’s complicated” or “Separated” signal drama
- Venting about your partner publicly causes embarrassment
- Keep things positive and modest when posting
- Discuss boundaries with your partner on what is share-worthy
- Major milestones like engagements or weddings are okay to announce
Following this advice will keep your love life private and prevent too much information from being accessible. Focus on sharing your relationship happiness rather than the rocky times.
Conclusion
While Facebook provides the option to share your romantic relationship status publicly, you have controls to keep that information limited to only certain people. By using a custom status, adjusting privacy settings, limiting past posts, and being cautious about oversharing, you can reveal your relationship details only to those you trust. This helps maintain privacy, security, and your reputation.