What Does ‘Other Viewers’ Mean for Facebook Stories?

People sharing collections of videos and photos in the form of stories is a popular social media feature. Stories are entertaining and engaging, creating intimacy amongst friends, family, and customers. Whenever you post a Facebook story, it is advertised for all to see right at the top of your newsfeed; tempting your visitors to take a quick peek.

If you’re seeing the “Other people viewed this story” message and want to know what it means, this article explains it. Let’s get started!

Who Are Other Viewers for Facebook Stories?

Facebook has decided to keep the identities of the other viewers of your Facebook stories confidential. Therefore, you’ll only know how many “others” there were and that they’d be a combination of Facebook and Messenger users or your followers.

In Facebook stories, you can create and share your shorts, videos, and photo collections with friends or everyone. These stories are fleeting, though, and eventually disappear after 24 hours.

Since the platform assumes you want all your stories viewable by people you know, the default privacy setting is “Friends only.” However, you can open your Facebook stories to the entire world when you set your privacy options to “Public.” In the case of the latter, viewers who are not your Facebook friends will get counted as “Other Viewers” or “Other People.”

Facebook does not reveal “other” identities to protect everybody’s privacy. If you prefer to see everyone who views your stories, you can always change the setting back to the default, “Friends.” Facebook is O.K. with sharing those names.

Facebook Viewers FAQs

How do I change the privacy of my Facebook Stories to control the viewers?

Anything added to Facebook Stories appears on Facebook and Messenger—it gets shared with the same audience on both apps. If you prefer not to have anyone view your Facebook stories, you can manage who sees them under “Privacy Settings.”

Can you see how many times someone views your Facebook Story?

No, you can’t tell whether someone has repeatedly watched your Facebook story or only viewed it once. However, you can see the number of times people have seen it.

Is there any way to see “Other Viewers” profiles or names?

“Other Viewers” are people that have viewed your Facebook story but are not your Facebook friend. So anyone other than your friends will be counted as “Other Viewers.” These people can consist of your followers or anyone on Facebook and Messenger.

By default, your Stories privacy settings get set to “Friends only.” When the option has been changed to “Public,” anyone can view it, but you cannot see who did. There is no third-party app that allows you to see any names.