California – Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) announced on Thursday a new bunch of tools to assist and help people end and modify their online relationship status and succeed while going on the process of having a breakup. It would seem that users usually unfriend their ex, untag themselves from their past relationship photos and sometimes they become friends again or they get back together after having done the mentioned.
The social network thought about all the possible repercussions that involve making all these changes, so now when users change their status, which goes from “it’s complicated” to “married,” they will be invited to make a try at the new tools that will make all the work of avoiding unwanted photos or publications in their newsfeeds. They will also have the option of limiting what “former partners” will see of their own posts.
Mark Zuckerberg’s company said in a Facebook Community Support post that they had heard from people that they sometimes have questions about the options available to them on Facebook when a relationship ends. That being said, they created the new tools to support their one billion daily active users.
According to the company statement, people will have the following options:
- Without having to unfriend or block their former partner, users could opt to see or not their names and profile pictures. Posts won’t show up in News Feed and their name won’t be suggested when people write a new message or tag friends in photos.
- Restraint the pictures, videos and status updates that a former partner will see.
- Edit who can see their past posts with a former partner and untag themselves from posts with that person.
In December 2013, Facebook created an “unfollow” option which allowed users to turn off and avoid status updates from friends without unfriending them. The 140 characters social network, Twitter, also introduced moths before a “mute” option that let users temporarily ban tweets and ads from appearing on their timelines.
The new tools can also be used for friends but only when users change their status. These measures demonstrate the interests of the giant Facebook of making their users feel safer and more protected from not pleasant emotions as people give more value than ever to social networks and personal posts.
“We’re starting to test these tools today in the US on mobile, and we’ll make changes and roll them out further based on people’s feedback. All of these tools are optional, and people will be able to access them in the help center anytime. This work is part of our ongoing effort to develop resources for people who may be going through difficult moments in their lives. We hope these tools will help people end relationships on Facebook with greater ease, comfort and sense of control,” wrote the company in its blog.
Source: Engadget