Facebook bug reveals how popular you REALLY are: View counts are appearing below posts on the mobile site

By Victoria Woollaston for MailOnline

Published: 05:10 EST, 15 October 2015 | Updated: 08:53 EST, 15 October 2015

If you're obsessed with the number of likes and comments your Facebook posts receive, there is now a new way to track how popular you are. 

A small number of users are seeing a view count beneath their posts that reveals how many people have seen the post, even if they haven't interacted with it explicitly.

Instead of being a new feature, however, the tool is a bug in the system that Facebook is working to remove. 

The view counts bug was first spotted by Nick Statt at The Verge but a handful of Twitter users are also seeing the update.  

One described it as 'creepy' while another added the hashtag #stalkeralert. 

The bug is only seemingly affecting the mobile site, not the desktop version or Facebook's official apps,and it is not clear why certain people are seeing it and not others.

FACEBOOK'S ON THIS DAY FILTERS 

Facebook has added filters to its On This Day feature. 

They have been designed to stop painful memories, for example, showing up as the site presents posts from previous years. 

Individual friends can be hidden, such as an ex, or memories between certain dates can be removed. 

The options can be found by clicking on the On This Day tab and selecting Preferences in the top right-hand corner.

Now that Facebook is working to remove it however, it is likely to be removed completely soon. 

Twitter launched a similar tool in August 2014 called Tweet Activity. 

When a user posts a tweet, a small bar chart icon is shown below it. 

Clicking this opens a pop-up window that shows Impressions, or the number of times people on Twitter saw the tweet, 'Total engagements', which represents the number of people who interacted with the tweet, and 'Link clicks'. 

This window also shows Favourites, Retweets, Replies, how many people expanded the tweet and and how many users clicked on the person's profile. 

YouTube similarly shows the number of video views.  

A handful of Twitter users are also seeing the update (pictured). One described it as 'creepy' while another added the hashtag #stalkeralert. The bug is only seemingly affecting the mobile site, not the desktop version or Facebook's official apps and it is not clear why only certain people are seeing the changes

Over the past week, Facebook has officially unveiled a new range of emoji 'Reactions' that will help users more widely express their emotions on posts and began testing a way to send 20-second birthday videos. 

It also added filters to its On This Day feature to stop painful memories, for example, showing up as it presents posts from previous years. 

Individual friends can be hidden, such as an ex, or memories between certain dates can be removed. 

The options can be found by clicking on the On This Day tab and by selecting Preferences in the top right-hand corner.  

Twitter launched a similar tool in August 2014 called Tweet Activity (pictured). Every time a user posts a tweet, a small bar chart icon is shown below it

Tweet Activity shows Impressions, or the number of times people on Twitter saw the tweet, 'Total engagements', which represents the number of people who interacted with the tweet, and 'Link clicks'. This window also shows and Favourites, Retweets, Replies. YouTube similarly shows the number of video views

 

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