Facebook’s relationship status feature allows users to publicly display whether they are single, in a relationship, engaged, married, or in a civil partnership. While many find it fun to announce their relationship status online, others prefer to keep that information private. Luckily, Facebook provides options to hide your relationship status from most people while still allowing certain individuals (such as your significant other) to view it.
Set Your Relationship Status to ‘Only Me’
The simplest way to hide your relationship status on Facebook is to set it so that ‘Only Me’ can view it. Here’s how:
- Go to your Facebook profile
- Click on the ‘About’ section
- Click on the ‘Relationship’ field
- Select your current relationship status from the dropdown menu (Single, In a Relationship, Engaged, Married, etc.)
- Click on the audience selector (Globe icon) next to your relationship status
- Select ‘Only Me’ from the dropdown menu
This will update your relationship status while restricting visibility to only you. No one else on Facebook will be able to see your relationship status update.
Add Your Partner to the Audience
While setting your relationship status to ‘Only Me’ will hide it from public view, you may still want your girlfriend or boyfriend to see it. After setting your relationship status to ‘Only Me’, follow these steps:
- Click on the audience selector again (Globe icon)
- Type your partner’s name in the ‘Specific People’ field
- Select your partner’s name when it appears
- Click ‘Done’ to save changes
Now the audience for your relationship status will be set to ‘Only Me + [Your Partner’s Name]’. This will allow your partner to view your relationship status while keeping it hidden from everyone else.
Restrict Status Updates to ‘Close Friends’
If you want to share some relationship updates publicly but only with a select group of people, you can use Facebook’s ‘Close Friends’ feature. This allows you to share certain posts, pictures, or updates with only your closest connections on Facebook.
Here’s how to use ‘Close Friends’ for your relationship status:
- Go to your profile and click on your relationship status
- Click the audience selector and choose ‘Close Friends’
- In the ‘Close Friends’ pop-up, select the friends you want to include
- Click ‘Done’ to save your Close Friends list
Now when you update your relationship status, it will only be visible to the friends you selected. You can edit your ‘Close Friends’ list at any time to add or remove people.
Create a Private List for Your Relationship Status Updates
Similar to Close Friends, you can also create a Custom List on Facebook containing just the people you want to see your relationship updates. Here’s how:
- Go to your profile and click ‘Friends’
- Click ‘Create List’ and give it a name like ‘Relationship Status Updates’
- Search for and select the friends to include in this list
- Click ‘Create’ to make your new list
Now when you go to update your relationship status, choose this new list in the audience selector. The status update will then only be visible to friends on that specific list.
Adjust Past Relationship Status Posts
Any previous relationship status updates you’ve made on Facebook in the past are still visible to the audience they were originally shared with. To hide old relationship status posts, you need to edit the audience on each status individually:
- Go to your profile and click on your previous status updates
- Click on the audience selector next to a status
- Choose ‘Only Me’, ‘Close Friends’ or a Custom List
- Repeat for each status post you want to hide
This will change the visibility setting for each individual status. It can be time consuming to update each one, but is necessary if you want to hide older relationship posts.
Temporarily Disable Your Profile
You can take a more drastic approach and temporarily disable your Facebook profile altogether. This will make all your info and posts inaccessible to anyone else until you reactivate it. Just keep in mind:
- No one will be able to see your profile or search for you
- You will not be able to access Facebook services
- You can reactivate your profile at any time
If you definitely want to keep your relationship completely private for a period of time, disabling your profile will ensure nothing is publicly visible.
Review Your Privacy Settings
Take some time to review Facebook’s privacy settings to maximize control over your relationship status visibility. Important things to check include:
Profile Privacy Settings
- Who can post on your timeline?
- Who can see your friends list?
- Who can look you up using your email address?
Limit Old Posts
- Limit visibility of old posts
- Disable public search ability for your timeline
View As…
- Use the “View As” tool to see what your profile looks like to others
- Make sure private info isn’t visible
Adjusting these privacy settings helps lock down your profile for maximum control over your relationship status visibility.
Know What is Always Public
Even if you hide your relationship status, certain information remains public on Facebook:
- Your name
- Profile picture
- Cover photo
- Gender
- Networks
- Username and User ID
These profile elements can only be seen by your friends if you adjust your privacy settings. But they are visible to everyone else by default. So someone could still determine you are in a relationship based on your profile picture with your significant other, for example.
Use Other Privacy Settings
To maximize privacy, adjust visibility for:
- Profile picture – Friends only
- Cover photo – Friends only
- Gender – Friends only
This will help prevent public visibility of relationship clues.
Beware of Relationship Tags
Even if you hide your relationship status, you or your partner could still be tagged in posts, pictures, and comments that indicate you are dating. Anyone who can see the post you are tagged in would then know you are in a relationship.
Review Tags
Go through posts and photos you are tagged in and check if any:
- Mention your relationship or reveal you are dating
- Tag you alongside your significant other in a couple-like pose
- Have captions or comments about your relationship
Look for any tags revealing your hidden relationship status and remove yourself from them.
Limit Future Relationship Tags
You can proactively stop relationship tags by:
- Asking friends not to tag you in posts about your relationship
- Keeping details about your dating life off Facebook
- Using Facebook’s “Review Tags” feature to approve any tags before they appear
Being vigilant about tagging can help maintain privacy around your relationship status.
Conclusion
Facebook provides customizable options for displaying your relationship status to exactly who you want. The best approach involves:
- Setting status visibility to ‘Only Me’ + your partner
- Using Close Friends or Custom Lists if you want to share with a select group too
- Updating past status posts to limit their audience
- Adjusting privacy settings to hide relationship clues
- Being aware of tags and info that could reveal you are in a relationship
With the right settings and some ongoing vigilance about what you share online, you can successfully hide your Facebook relationship status and maintain more privacy around your dating life.