What Happens If You Like and Then Unlike a Post on Facebook?
When you’re on someone’s profile stalking them, or you may see their posts on your feed, then accidentally like one of their posts is inevitable. This can be embarrassing especially if you’re far down on their profile and you accidentally like something from weeks ago. To save yourself from the embarrassment, you unlike the post in the hopes that they don’t find out. If you’re worried whether they’ll be able to tell you liked their posts, then it depends. If you accidentally like and unlike someone’s post on Facebook, chances are they won’t know you’ve done so. Depending on how quickly you unliked, they may not receive a notification on their phone. However, if they’re active on their phone and you took too long to unlike, then they are likely to receive a notification and see it. The same goes for if you reacted to their post with an emoji, if you unlike it in a timely speed, or they’re not on their phone when you do it, they’re not going to see it. If you’re using Facebook on your PC, then it’s going to be harder to unlike a post that you just liked because you’ll have to click the like button again with your mouse. If they’re not using their device during the time you liked and unliked their posts, then the notification from their device as soon as you unlike it. Even if they go to their Facebook notifications, they won’t be able to see that you’ve liked their posts because the notification gets deleted as soon as you unlike it. Another thing that can affect this is whether they have their notifications disabled for Facebook or not. If they have their notifications disabled, then when you unlike it, even if they’re on their phone, they’re not going to see if you like it because their notifications are disabled.
1. Were They Using Their Phone
If they’re not using their device during the time you liked and unliked their post, then the notification will disappear from their device as soon as you unlike it. Even if they go to their Facebook notifications, they won’t be able to see that you’ve liked their post because the notification gets deleted as soon as you unlike it. There’s no way to tell if someone was using their phone when you liked then unliked their photo which is why it’s hard to use this as reassurance for them not finding out. You can use other apps like WhatsApp. Instagram or TikTok to see if they’re active now and are currently using their phones. This will let you know if they were using their phones when you accidentally like their post. Whilst you’re on TikTok, if you like and unlike someone’s post, there’s no need to worry.
2. If You Unlike a Facebook Post, Does The Notification Go Away
In their notification bar, the notification disappears once you unlike the post. It used to be that when you liked something and unliked it, the notification stayed on their phone but disappeared on the app, but recently the notification on their phone disappears when you unline the post. If there is a glitch in their notifications section, this can cause the notification to stay there longer than usual which will allow them to see that you initially liked their post. Another thing that can affect this is whether they have their notifications disabled for Facebook or not. If they have their notifications disabled, then when you unlike it, even if they’re on their phone, they’re not going to see if you like it because their notifications are disabled. They are able to turn off their notifications via the settings app and the Facebook app itself. The downside of this is that you won’t know if they did this so you can’t really use it as reassurance for them not finding out that you liked their photo.
3. Your Likes Might Be Clumped In With The Rest
If you accidentally liked their photo, chances are their photo was trending on Facebook which means that a bunch of other people are liking it and interacting with it. There’s a chance that your username is clumped in with a bunch of other people who liked it. Because of this, they won’t actually see that you liked it unless they expand the list of other people who liked it.
4. If You Do It Fast Enough, The Like Won’t Be Registered
When you unlike the post, it may have been done so fast that the like wasn’t registered in the first place. It usually takes seconds for Facebook to register that something has been liked and then send a notification to the person to let them know. If you unlike quickly enough, enough time wouldn’t have passed for Facebook to process the like and send the user a notification. But, even if you unlike it quickly if they check their notification section in Facebook, they’ll be able to see that you’ve liked their Facebook. If you’re in a position where you only found out that you liked their photo or video a long time after you liked it, then this certainly won’t be the situation for you.
5. Are They Facebook Famous?
If they are Facebook famous, then the less you have to worry about. Famous people get tons of notifications so the last thing that you should be worried about is them knowing that you liked their photo accidentally. They don’t even have to be famous, if they put out lots of content regularly and they get quite a bit of engagement, they’re constantly receiving notifications and in the event that you accidentally liked their video, chances of them knowing is pretty much impossible.
What to Do After Accidentally Liking Then Unliking A Post on Facebook
Knowing what to do after accidentally liking someone’s old picture on Facebook is crucial because this can make or break whether they get that notification or if they know that you liked then unliked their picture. Tip: If you are on someone’s profile, looking through their posts or their pictures, then you can put your phone or airplane mode to cover your tracks. Before you do this, make sure to load up all of your content using Wi-Fi or data. Once it’s loaded, put your phone in airplane mode. If you accidentally like something, it won’t be registered before your phone wasn’t connected to the internet. If you do accidently like someone, take your phone off airplane mode and refresh their profile – you’ll see that the like wasn’t registered.
Blocking Them
If you’re wondering if you should block someone after you like then unlike their post, this is pretty unnecessary and it can make you look even worse in most cases. Let me explain a scenario, let’s say that you like then unlike someone post and they’re on their phone. They going to get a notification if you didn’t unlike to fast enough. Let’s say that they see that notification come up on their phone so they open Facebook to see what picture it is but there’s no notification because you unliked it – this will already look weird and they can probably tell it was an accident. Now let’s say that they saw the notification, went to your Facebook, and saw that you blocked them – this is going to make you look even worse. The best thing to do after liking a picture accidentally is to unlike it. To block someone on Facebook:
Disabling Your Account
Again, disabling your account after accidentally liking a post is unnecessary. Once you like and unlike fast enough, they’re not going to see a notification. Whether they saw that you liked their post or they didn’t, disabling your account is just an extra step that doesn’t need to be taken. To deactivate your account: If you unlike straight away, then you don’t have to worry about the notification showing up. But if you took a long time, then it means that they’ve already seen the like and there’s no point in you doing anything. Even doing things like blocking them is useless because they’ll know that you only did it because you were embarrassed about them knowing that you liked it.
Delete Your Profile Picture and Change Your Name
As soon as you like something then unlike it, you can change your profile picture and name to something anonymous so that they don’t suspect that it was you who liked it. This means that you’ll be able to lurk through Facebook without the that someone you know will find out that you were stalking them.
How to Stop Accidentally Liking Something on Facebook?
Rather than someone being notified that you liked then unliked their post, you can prevent this from happening in the first place. There are a few ways that you can use Facebook which will prevent you from making such a mistake.
Don’t Scroll Near The Like Button
One way that you can like something by clicking the like button on the left of the post. To stop yourself from liking it by accident, when scrolling, you need to stay away from the like button. The middle or right lane of the post is the best way to scroll from. If you want to follow someone or check the Facebook comments, then you need to be extra careful to make sure that you don’t click the like button.
Airplane Mode
Another way look at something without accidentally liking them is by putting your phone on Airplane mode. When your phone is on airplane mode, your device won’t be connected to the internet, so Facebook won’t be able to register that you’ve liked something. For this to work, you need to make sure that you’ve loaded all of the post on your timeline before you put your device in Airplane mode. Once the Facebook post you want to see has loaded up, then you need to put your phone on airplane mode, look at it, look at the comments and share it. All putting your phone on Airplane mode does is stop the like from processing in the case that you do accidentally like it. A fter viewing the post without them knowing, you can now turn your phone off airplane mode and the person won’t be able to tell that you liked their post if you did accidentally like it.
Use Another Account
If you have a burner account that has no traces to your identity, you can use this to browse Facebook and they’ll never be able to tell it was you that accidentally liked their post. If their account is public, then using your burner account is easy and you’ll be able to view their content anytime. But if their account is private, then you’ll have to follow them and be accepted in order to view their post anonymously. The key to this is that there can be absolutely nothing that links both your personal account and this burner account unless they could suspect that you’re the person behind the account. Another thing to realize here is that if they don’t have that many followers and they notice an unknown burner account is watching their stories without following them, this can lead them to block since they know that someone is stalking them.
Use Facebook.com On Your Laptop
Using Facebook.com on your laptop will make the chances of you liking something accidentally a lot smaller. Because you’re not using your fingers, you’re not going to be accidentally clicking the like button. Of course, using Facebook on your laptop won’t provide you with the best user experience but it’ll alleviate your fears.
