This is a common question that many Facebook users have wondered about at some point. When you are scrolling through your Facebook feed and you scroll past someone’s story without clicking on it or watching it, does that person get notified? The short answer is no, the person who posted the story will not get notified or know that you scrolled past their story.
How Facebook Stories Work
Facebook Stories allow users to post photos and short videos that appear at the top of the news feed and disappear after 24 hours. When someone posts a story, it goes out to all of their friends and followers on Facebook. As a viewer, you can tap on a story to watch it, comment on it, react to it (like, love, etc.), or message the person who posted it directly from the story.
However, if you simply keep scrolling and do not engage with the story in any way, this does not trigger any notification for the person who originally posted it. They have no way of knowing who scrolled past their story without watching it. The only metrics they can see are:
- Number of viewers
- Number of reactions
- Number of replies
They cannot see the names or identities of each specific viewer. So you can scroll to your heart’s content without the poster ever knowing!
Why Scrolling Doesn’t Trigger Notifications
There are a few reasons why simply scrolling past a Facebook story does not notify the original poster:
- It would create too many unnecessary notifications – Facebook has over 2 billion active users, and stories are displayed to potentially hundreds of friends. If scrolling triggered a notification, it would create an overwhelming number of useless notifications for the poster.
- Scrolling doesn’t necessarily indicate interest – Just because you scroll past a story doesn’t mean you have an interest in engaging with or watching it. Facebook aims to limit notifications to meaningful interactions.
- Privacy – Knowing exactly who scrolled past your story could be considered a privacy violation since those people did not consent to interacting with the story.
When Scrolling Does Trigger Notifications
While simply scrolling past does not create a notification, there are some forms of engagement with a Facebook story that will notify the original poster:
- Reacting to a story – If you react to a story by tapping the “Like” or any other reaction icon, the poster will get notified that you reacted to their story.
- Commenting on a story – Leaving a text comment on a story will trigger a notification to the poster that you commented.
- Sharing a story – If you share someone’s story through Facebook, they will be notified that you shared their content.
- Private replies – Directly replying to a story via private/direct message will obviously notify the poster since you are messaging them directly.
So in summary, any form of active engagement with a Facebook story will trigger a notification, while passively scrolling past does not. The original poster has no way of knowing you merely scrolled past their story.
How to Tell if Someone Viewed Your Story
If you have posted a story on Facebook, you may be wondering how you can tell who actually viewed it. As mentioned above, there is no way to get notified about or identify each individual viewer or scroller. However, Facebook does provide story posters with a few high-level metrics:
- Viewers – You can see the total number of viewers your story received. But this is an aggregate number and you cannot see info on each viewer.
- Reactions – If people react to your story, you will get notified of the total reaction count, as well as see which specific people reacted.
- Shares – You’ll be notified if someone shares your story and be able to see who shared it.
- Replies – Any comments or direct replies will show up in your notifications and you can view them.
While it can be frustrating not knowing exactly who scrolled past your story, the metrics provided by Facebook give you an idea of how your story is performing and which friends actively engaged with it. If you want to see if specific people are viewing your content, you could always post a close friends-only story and check for reactions and replies from that inner circle.
Conclusion
In summary, when scrolling past someone’s Facebook story, they will not receive any notification or be able to tell that you specifically scrolled past. Only active engagement such as reacting, commenting, sharing, or replying will trigger notifications. The person who posted the story is limited to seeing high-level viewer metrics rather than data on each viewer. So feel free to scroll to your heart’s content without worrying that you’re triggering constant notifications for all your Facebook friends!