Your Quick Answer:
You might notice that if you have sent a friend request, that would show ‘Following‘.
There are some profiles for whom you can’t send friend requests due to privacy, those display the follow button and if you tap on it then he will be in your following list.
The people you send friend requests to, come under the following list of your Facebook profile even if the request is pending.
If you’re seeing the ‘Following’ on someone’s profile that means you’ve followed the person or sent a friend request and once he accepts that you will be still a follower of that person.
Your following will be canceled when you cancel the sent friend request. If you have not sent friend requests to the person, you can just unfollow the person by tapping on the ‘Unfollow’ button.
However, if you want to remove those people from the following list,
1️⃣ Open the One-Click Friend Removal guide.
2️⃣ Take the steps to remove friends.
3️⃣ Now all your friend requests are canceled.
Why Does It Say Follow Instead Of Add Friend On Facebook:
These are might be the reasons:
1. For Its Privacy Settings
If you see that you’re not able to send a friend request to someone on Facebook but you are only finding a Follow button instead, it’s because of the user’s privacy to receive friend requests only from friends of friends. As you don’t have any mutual friends with the user you’re not able to send the person a friend request on Facebook.
You will not be able to send him a friend request to add the user to your friend list unless the person changes his privacy settings to receive requests from everyone. You can send a message to the user asking him to change his privacy so that you can send him a friend request.
2. That is A Page Not Profile
On Facebook, you can’t send a friend request to a Facebook page. If you’re looking for the Add Friend button on a Facebook page, then you won’t find it as Facebook pages cannot be added to your friend list but you can follow them by clicking on the blue Follow button if you’re interested in the page’s content.
Only if it’s a profile of an individual on Facebook, you’ll get the Add Friend button to send the user a friend request.
3. Facebook Profile Checker (Add Friend Checker)
🔯 Difference Between a Friend Request and Following Someone:
The main difference is the limitation to interact with the profile. You will find the facts below what it means in both cases.
🔴 Friend request: If someone sends you a friend request and you accept their request, then you both agree indirectly that you know each other. As soon as you accept the request, both of you end up following each other. Friends on Facebook are someone whom you know personally know through one of your friends are called mutual friends.
🔴 Following on Facebook: Followers are those people who took interest in following you even though they are outside of your real-life circle.
Facebook has an option for everything, you can control your profile just by clicking on the buttons. You can always set limits for who should follow you.
🔴 Steps To Follow:
Step 1: On the settings page, click on public posts.
Step 2: In the very first row, you find the ‘Who can follow me’ option.
Step 3: There are two options for that ‘Public’ & ‘Friends’.
If you have set the settings as ‘Public’, then anyone whose friend requests you have ignored or rejected can follow you unless and until you block them.
🔯 Sent a Friend request, but it says the Following – Why:
When a person accepts your friend request, he gets added as your friend on Facebook. You may not know but when you’re adding someone on Facebook, the person automatically gets followed by you. You’ll become Friends with the user at the same time a follower too which is why you’ll find the Following tag on the user’s profile page.
When you add someone, the user gets automatically followed by you so that all pictures, videos, etc shared or updated by the person on his profile show up on your profile newsfeed.
If you want to unfollow the user but keep him as your friend, you can still do that by clicking on the Friends button on his profile page, then clicking on Unfollow and confirming it.
Confirmed Friend request, But Not Friends – Why:
The reasons are might be these below:
1. Person Removed you From Friends
If you see that someone has accepted your friend request but the person is not showing up on your friend list, the person may have unfriended or removed you after accepting your friend request.
This can either be a mistake on the other user’s part or he may have done it intentionally. You can send a friend request to the user again and see if he accepts it or not.
2. His Profile was Deactivated
If the user has deactivated his profile on Facebook then he might not appear on your friend list either even if he has accepted your friend request.
As deactivation is not permanent you need to wait for a few days to let the person reactivate his profile. After the user reactivates his account, he will appear on your friend list again and you’ll get to see his account activity on your newsfeed.
Apps to Follow Facebook Users Without Being Friends:
You can try the following apps below:
1. Social Searcher
If you want to follow users on Facebook without being friends with them, you can do that by using Social Searcher. This is a web tool that lets you follow any user from Facebook and check their profile posts without having to add them as friends.
It doesn’t need to connect to your Facebook account either.
⭐️ Features:
◘ You can check other Facebook users’ posts.
◘ It lets you save Facebook videos posted by users.
◘ You can check other people’s life events updated on Facebook using the tool.
◘ It lets you see others’ friends count.
◘ You can download videos and images in high resolutions.
◘ It lets you follow anyone from Facebook anonymously.
🔗 Link: https://www.social-searcher.com/facebook-search/
🔴 Steps To Follow:
Step 1: Open the tool from the link.
Step 2: Enter the Facebook profile name of the person whom you want to follow.
Step 3: Then click on the blue search icon and it will show the user’s Facebook profile posts. You can follow the user and check his posts anonymously.
2. Khalil Shreateh profile Viewer
Another tool that you can consider using to follow a user from Facebook without being friends with the user is Khalil Shreateh profile Viewer. It’s a web tool that doesn’t need you to connect your Facebook account. It shows you all Facebook posts and stories once you search for someone on the tool.
⭐️ Features:
◘ It lets you see any Facebook user’s posts.
◘ You can download the pictures of any user offline.
◘ It lets you view and saves others’ stories anonymously.
◘ You can follow anyone from Facebook anonymously on the tool to know about their life events.
◘ It doesn’t require registration either.
🔗 Link: https://khalil-shreateh.com/khalil.shtml/social_applications/facebook-applications/profile-picture-viewer-app.html
🔴 Steps To Follow:
Step 1: Open the tool from the link.
Step 2: Enter the Facebook profile name of the user whom you want to follow secretly.
Step 3: Perform the human verification process properly.
Step 4: Then click on the Get Profile Picture button to see the user’s profile posts and follow him secretly without being friends.
How can you follow someone on Facebook but not be friends:
If you want to know the method to follow someone without being a friend then this is possible if you’re on your Facebook desktop.
To follow someone on Facebook but not be a friend,
First of all, go to Facebook on your chrome browser or other.
🔴 Steps To Follow:
Step 1: Now open the profile you want to follow.
Step 2: Just send a friend request to the person. (Don’t worry it’s temporary, will revert this option now).
Step 3: You will see the three-dots icon, click on the ‘View Main Profile‘ option.
Step 4: Once the profile opens, just click on the three-dots icon again and just tap on ‘cancel request’.
Step 5: Once you cancel the friend request, it will show Add friend option, but you’re still following the person as you will be seeing the ‘Unfollow‘ option.
This is the method anyone can use to follow someone on Facebook. But everything the person shares with his friends will miss, and only public stuff will be shown to you.
What does Following mean on the Facebook post:
If you followed someone on Facebook, you would get a notification when the person published a new post. With that, you can always keep in touch with the person’s location, their activities, their likes and dislikes, and so on and so forth.
If you have set the privacy settings as ‘Friends’, then only your friends can see the post you make and comment on it. But, if you had kept it as ‘Public’ then anyone following you can get notified and see your post (that includes public photos and posts you make).
If you want to check whoever is following you, here are the steps:
🔴 Steps To Follow:
Step 1: Go to your profile page.
Step 2: Click ‘Friends’ that is seen under your profile picture.
Step 3: Click on ‘More’ and then on ‘Following’.
Step 4: A list of followers will appear on the screen.
You can check your followers and you can also block them if you don’t want them to follow you.
🔯 Add or Hide the ‘Add Friend’ & ‘Follow’ options on Facebook:
When you come across some Facebook profiles, you find the ‘follow’ button instead of ‘Add friend’. If you click on ‘Follow’, it shows that you are following that person. This is again the magic done by the privacy settings.
🔴 Steps To Follow:
Step 1: Click on your accounts.
Step 2: Select settings and go to privacy.
Step 3: Scroll down and stop where you see the tag ‘How people find and contact you‘.
Step 4: In that tag, select ‘Who can send you a friend request’.
Step 5: Many people might have set it as the ‘Friends of friends‘ option. If you haven’t set the same, do it asap.
Step 6: This means that only the friends of your friends who are on your Facebook list can send you a friend request.
To be simple, someone with zero mutual friends cannot send a friend request to you if the settings are applied. The ‘Add friend’ button on your Facebook will disappear for those who are not your friends’ friends.
🔯 They can simply follow you on Facebook:
This is the reason why you only see the ‘Follow’ option on some profiles and you can only follow them and cannot be friends with them unless they add you.
Many certified profiles on Facebook follow such settings along with the blue tick near their username indicating that these are verified profiles, indirectly saying that they are celebrities and they are only to be followed AND SOME ARE THE PAGES.
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