The extremely popular social media platform on Thursday introduced a new function that allows users to see less of their recent ex-partners.
Many find social media difficult after a breakup, struggling with seeing posts and pictures of their ex but not wanting to take the drastic measure of deleting or blocking them completely. On Thursday, Facebook announced a new tool that would solve this problem.
After changing your relationship status from “in a relationship” to “single,” Facebook will give you the option to limit exposure to photos, posts and mentions of the ex-partner with whom you had registered as being in a relationship with. The function, which is still in its testing phase, is available to try for mobile users in the United States. It’s understood that the it will be rolled out beyond the US early next year.
“Facebook is a place for sharing life’s important moments, which for many people include their romantic relationships,” said Facebook product manager Kelly Winters in a statement. “When a relationship ends, we’ve heard from people that they sometimes have questions about the options available to them on Facebook.”
It’s the latest of many notable changes the widely used social network has implemented in recent months. Back in September, users in the US were given the ability to add video display pictures, and in October it introduced a newer and more robust video streaming interface. All of those updates came after CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg announced back in August that, for the first time ever, over 1 billion people had used Facebook in a single day — an achievement he appears to not be taking lightly.
There was also conjecture that Facebook would add the long-demanded “dislike” button after Zuckerberg said that the “like” button couldn’t express a wide enough range of emotion. Instead, the company in October provided US users with Reactions, which are icons that represent love, laughter, happiness, shock, sadness and anger.
