How to View Your Facebook Profile as Someone Else Sees It
Use Facebook's View As tool to see your profile the way the public sees it, what changed after 2018, and how to fix anything that should be kept private.
Privacy settings are only useful if they do what you think they do. Facebook's View As tool lets you check, by showing your profile the way someone who is not your friend would see it. It is the fastest way to spot an old photo, a school name or a list of friends that is still public.
It is also one of the most effective things to do with a teen. Seeing their own profile through a stranger's eyes tends to make the case for tighter settings better than any lecture.
How to use View As
The location of the menu shifts slightly between app versions, but the route is consistent.
On the Facebook app
- Tap your profile picture to open your profile.
- Tap the three dots next to Edit profile.
- Choose View As.
- Scroll through your profile as the public sees it.
- Tap the back arrow to return to your normal view.
On a computer
- Go to your profile.
- Click the three dots beside Edit profile, under your cover photo.
- Select View As.
- Click Exit View As at the top of the screen when you are done.
Some people find the desktop version shows a little more detail, so if you have a computer handy, it is worth checking both.
What changed: no more "view as a specific friend"
For years, View As let you type in a friend's name and see your profile exactly as that person would. That option was removed in 2018, after Facebook disclosed a security flaw involving View As that let attackers obtain access tokens for millions of accounts. When View As returned, it showed only the public view.
That means View As tells you what strangers can see, but not what a particular friend, coworker or list can see. To control that, you rely on the audience of each post and on friend lists such as Restricted and Acquaintances.
What to look for
Go through the public view slowly and note anything that is visible:
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Profile picture and cover photo | Usually public; can show your face, kids, home or school logo |
| Intro details | School, workplace, hometown and current city help strangers locate you |
| Friends list | Shows who you know and can be used to impersonate you or contact your kids |
| Posts set to Public | Including old posts from years ago |
| Photos and albums | Albums can have their own audience settings |
| Featured items | Highlighted photos or stories pinned to the profile |
| Pages, groups and follows | Reveal interests, location and routines |
How to fix what you find
- Change a post's audience. Tap the three dots on the post, choose to edit the audience, and set it to Friends or Only me.
- Limit old posts in one step. In your settings, use the option to limit the audience of past posts to Friends.
- Edit intro details. Use Edit profile and set each detail, such as school or city, to Friends or Only me, or remove it.
- Hide your friends list. In the settings for how people find and contact you, set who can see your friends list to Only me or Friends.
- Review photo albums. Each album has its own audience setting. Profile pictures and cover photos are generally visible more widely, so choose them with that in mind.
- Check again. Run View As once more to confirm the changes worked.
If you want a guided walkthrough of the rest of your settings, our 5-minute Facebook privacy checkup covers them in order.
A blind spot: posts you are tagged in
View As shows your profile, but it does not show everything about you that exists on Facebook. Posts you are tagged in may be visible to the friends of the person who posted them, depending on their settings. Hiding a post from your profile does not remove it from other places, such as feeds and search, where its original audience can still see it.
To reduce surprises:
- Turn on tag review so you approve tags before they appear on your profile.
- Remove tags from posts you do not want connected to you.
- Ask friends to change the audience of a post, or take it down, if it shows your child.
Our guide on what it means to be tagged explains how tags extend a post's reach.
Doing it with your teen
Sit down together and let your teen drive. Ask them to point out anything a stranger could use to find them: a school name, a team jersey, a street, a birthday. Most teens catch more than parents would. Then fix the items together and run View As one last time.
It is also a good moment to look at search engine visibility. Our article on keeping your Facebook profile off search engines shows how to stop public search engines from linking to the profile.
The bottom line
- View As shows your profile the way the public sees it.
- The "view as a specific friend" option has been gone since 2018.
- Look for intro details, friends lists, old public posts and photos.
- Fix items one by one, then run View As again.
- Remember that tagged posts can reach people beyond your own settings.
Frequently asked questions
Can I see my Facebook profile as a specific friend?
Not anymore. View As now shows how your profile looks to the public, meaning people who are not your friends.
Where is View As on Facebook?
Go to your profile, open the three-dot menu next to Edit profile, and choose View As. Use the back arrow or Exit View As to return.
Can people tell if I used View As on my profile?
No. View As only changes what you see on your own screen.