Want to view Facebook stories anonymously? Here’s your ultimate guide 

In today’s deeply entrenched world of social media, anonymity is a myth. It’s so easy to track someone’s online footprint, with platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram unveiling your last seen status, story views, read receipts and more. Don’t you wish to go incognito sometimes without leaving any footprint of your actions? If you want to conceal your views on Facebook stories, let’s take you through five easy tricks to view them anonymously.

While Facebook doesn’t have any built-in feature to hide views on stories, there are some interesting hacks that’ll be your saving grace. Whether you want to dig for more information about that new colleague at work or spy on your boyfriend/ girlfriend on their day out with friends and more – these tricks will aid your purpose. Here’s your ultimate cheat sheet.

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Five easy hacks to view Facebook stories anonymously

1. Turn on your device’s Airplane mode

Turning on your mobile’s Airplane mode and disconnecting it from the internet is the easiest way to attain anonymity. Simply go to the Facebook app and let the story you intend to watch get loaded. Now, turn on the Airplane mode and make sure your device isn’t connected to the WiFi either. Once activated, watch the story offline, close the Facebook session and turn off the Airplane mode. And it’s done.

2. The half swiping technique

This is a golden hack that works across Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. As the name suggests, this technique requires you to stop watching the story halfway through just to get a glimpse of what it’s about and satiate your curiosity. Open a story to the immediate left or right of the actual story you intend to watch. Now, swipe left or right to view the target story while holding onto the previous story. And voila, you’ll have seen the story without getting caught in the viewer’s list.

3. Block the user after viewing the story

If you’ve mistakenly done the deed and watched someone’s story actively, here’s how to undo it. Immediately block the person from your account so that they can’t trace any of your activities on the platform (including the story view).  Please note that you’ll be removed from each other’s accounts for good and if the other person has a private account, you might not be able to access their profile at all. So, think through before blocking anyone. Another downside to this method is that the person might’ve already seen your view before you got a chance to block them. So, the whole exercise goes to waste.

4. Deactivate your Facebook handle

If you’ve seen the desired stories and still want to maintain anonymity (without taking extreme measures like blocking), then try deactivating your Facebook account. Since story views are counted for 24 hours since uploading, you can reactivate your account after the 24-hour window as the story expires and the user won’t know you saw their stories.

5. Use a Facebook story viewer extension

There are multiple third-party Facebook story viewer tools, which you can add to Chrome and view the stories anonymously on the web. Some of these include Anonymous Stories for Facebook and Story Space. Anonymous viewer for IG and FB and more. Here’s how to go about it:

• Go to the Chrome web store, search for ‘Anonymous Stories for Facebook’ and ‘Add to Chrome’.
• Open Facebook on your browser and load the story page.
• Head to the ‘Extensions’ icon on the top right of the window and turn the toggle on for ‘Anonymous mode’.
• You’ll see the colour of the Facebook stories rings change. You can now view the stories anonymously.

You can also always create an alternate account or ask any mutual friend to share the screenshot of the story. Moreover, if you can control your temptations, there’s also a Facebook highlights section which showcases an array of stories added by the account holder. However, you’ll have to wait for 48 hours before watching a person’s highlights.

Hope this guide helps you conceal your views on Facebook stories.

(Hero image credit: Glen Carrie/ Unsplash)

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