Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms, with over 2.9 billion monthly active users as of Q4 2021. On Facebook, users can post status updates, photos, videos, and more, and other users can interact with that content by liking, commenting, and sharing. One common question that many Facebook users have is whether the platform sends push notifications when someone likes your post or photo.
What are Push Notifications?
Push notifications are alerts that apps can send to users even when the app is not open. For example, when someone sends you a message on Facebook Messenger, you may receive a push notification on your device alerting you to the new message. This allows apps to get your attention even when you are not actively using them.
Push notifications show up on your device’s home screen as pop-up alerts, allowing users to quickly see when something important happens in an app. Platforms like Facebook use push notifications to keep users engaged by alerting them to new interactions and activity.
Does Facebook Send Notifications for Likes?
The short answer is no, Facebook does not send push notifications when someone likes your posts or photos. Likes are considered lower priority interactions on Facebook, as opposed to comments, shares, messages, and other notifications.
Facebook reserves push notifications for higher priority alerts that require more immediate attention, such as when you are tagged in a post, receive a new message or friend request, get invited to an event, or have a post shared on your timeline.
Likes are primarily engagement metrics that allow users to quickly interact with content. Having push notifications turned on for every single like could become annoying and overwhelming for users who share popular content. Too many notifications runs the risk of users turning off notifications altogether.
Types of Notifications Facebook Sends
While it does not send alerts for likes, Facebook does use push notifications for the following types of activity:
- Messages – When someone sends you a new message on Facebook Messenger
- Mentions – Getting tagged in a post or comment
- Friend requests – When someone sends you a new friend request
- Event invites – Getting invited to an event
- Shared content – When someone shares your post or profile on their timeline
- Facebook Live – When someone you follow begins a live video stream
- Facebook Group activity – When there is new activity in a Facebook Group you have joined
- Page notifications – When a Facebook Page you follow posts new content
- Comment replies – When someone replies to your comment on a post
- Recommendations – Friend recommendations, suggested events, Pages to follow
Facebook prioritizes push notifications for these types of high engagement interactions that are likely to require more immediate attention from users.
How to Manage Notifications on Facebook
If you want to control what types of push notifications you receive from Facebook, you can adjust these settings:
- On the Facebook app, go to the Menu > Settings & Privacy > Settings > Notifications
- On the Facebook website, click the arrow in the top right > Settings & Privacy > Settings > Notifications
From here, you can toggle notifications on or off for specific types of activities. For example, you can disable notifications for friend requests or events if you don’t want to be alerted about those interactions.
You can also choose whether you want push notifications, email notifications, or just in-app notifications for different Facebook activities. So even if you turn off push notifications, you can still receive alerts when using the Facebook app or website.
Useful Facebook Notification Settings
Here are some especially useful notification settings on Facebook that you may want to review:
- Mute Push Notifications – Disable all push notifications temporarily
- Mute Message Sounds – Turn off sounds for new message notifications
- Show Facebook Notifications – Toggle whether notifications show up on your device’s lock screen
- Vibrate – Choose whether you want notifications to vibrate your device
- Light – Toggle LED flashing for notifications on devices that support it
- Recommendations – Turn off notifications for suggested posts and pages Facebook thinks you may like
Adjusting these settings can help you customize Facebook notifications to match your preferences and avoid notification overload.
Should Facebook Add Like Notifications?
Whether Facebook should add push notifications for likes comes down to personal preference. Here are some pros and cons to consider:
Pros of Like Notifications
- Gives users more immediate feedback when a post resonates
- Likes are validation that content is connecting with your audience
- Alerts can encourage users to check back and engage further
- Provides another metric to measure engagement and reach
Cons of Like Notifications
- Too many notifications could overwhelm users
- Makes it harder for users to prioritize important alerts
- Likes have limited value compared to comments, shares, messages
- Popular pages and profiles would generate constant notifications
Facebook has clearly decided that enabling like notifications does not currently align with its platform priorities. The cons seem to outweigh the benefits for most general users.
However, Facebook does provide ways to track likes through email summaries, Page Insights, and analytics tools. So you can still monitor how much engagement your content is getting through likes, just not through real-time push notifications.
Third-Party Tools for Notification Tracking
While Facebook itself does not offer like notifications, there are third-party social media management platforms that provide this feature:
- Hootsuite – Social media management tool that lets you track notifications for likes, as well as comments, shares, etc. across multiple networks.
- Sprout Social – Social media monitoring software that can send custom notifications when specified interactions occur.
- Sendible – Marketing platform with options to create notification rules for different Facebook activities.
- Social Flow – Social posting scheduler that lets you select Facebook notification triggers.
These tools pull data from Facebook’s API to provide expanded analytics and notifications beyond what Facebook offers natively. So if like notifications are important to your social strategy, third-party platforms provide alternative options.
Conclusion
Facebook’s policy is to reserve push notifications for high priority alerts that require immediate attention, rather than trivial interactions like likes. Too many notifications risks users disabling them entirely.
But while Facebook itself does not offer like notifications, many social media management platforms provide this feature by tapping into Facebook’s data. The choice ultimately depends on your specific notification preferences and needs as a Facebook user.