Facebook wants to help YOU get over your ex

Facebook lets you block posts from an ex – so you don't have to unfriend them

FACEBOOK is hard at work on a way to ease the heartache of breaking up.

 

Facebook this week unveiled a new feature to help social media users hide posts from their ex-partners.

People who have recently split-up with a spouse or partner can turn on an option to spare them the emotional pain of constantly seeing a stream of their ex-lover's posts and pictures.

Facebook will begin testing the break-up protection on mobile devices in the US before deciding whether to offer it to all of its 1.5 billion accountholders worldwide.

The news comes after Facebook rolled out the ability to overlay your profile picture with the French flag to pay tribute those who died in the terror attacks.

 

The option is designed for people who don't want to risk offending a former husband, wife, girlfriend or boyfriend by taking the more extreme step of unfriending or blocking them from their Facebook network.

After changing their relationship status on Facebook, people will also be allowed to remove their names from past posts linking them to a former partner.

"This work is part of our ongoing effort to develop resources for people who may be going through difficult moments in their lives," Facebook product manager Kelly Winters announced in a blog post.

 



Facebook now allows users to limit their exposure to their ex partner



The breakup protection serves as another reminder of how deeply ingrained Facebook has become in society. 

More than 1 billion people now hang out on Facebook at least once a day and those who have the network's addictive mobile application installed on their smartphones tend to visit even more frequently.

The Menlo Park, California, company has incentive to try to keep its users as happy as possible. 

 

Facebook is testing the feature in the US, before rolling it out to its 1.5 billion users

People who become upset with what appears in their Facebook feeds are more likely to avoid coming to the network, depriving the company of the opportunity to collect more information about their preferences and show them ads aimed at those interests.

The formula has turned Facebook into a huge success story since Mark Zuckerberg founded the service in a Harvard University dorm room more than a decade ago. Facebook's market value now stands at $300 billion.