As we all know, unlike WhatsApp which has provided an official (and unofficial) way of viewing stories without letting the users know, Facebook is yet to roll out any of such features, hopefully, they'd consider it in one of the future updates.

How can I watch a Facebook story anonymously?

• The swiping method

I call the first method the swiping method. While it works, you'll only be able to see a preview of the story, after which, you proceed to the next one. In the case of videos, you'd only be able to see the thumbnail, remember, half bread is better than none.

To use this method, open the Facebook story and hold your finger on either the left or right side of the screen and swipe left or right without releasing the finger. You will be able to see almost the entire first screen of the story to the left or right of the one you’re watching.

With this, you'll be able to see the stories to the right or left without them knowing. This is not so ideal, as you'd be able to only view the previews.

• The offline method

This method is much more effective than the swiping method stated above as it does allow you to view the entire story anonymously. The downside here is that it doesn't work for all stories, although if you try it a few times in a row, it might work.

One thing you should however know about this is that it works with the Facebook mobile apps (iPhones and Androids).

Kindly follow the below steps to make them work:

  - Open the Facebook app and scroll through all the stories, so they’re all loaded and shown on your screen.
  - After this, proceed to disconnect your phone's data connection,. You can put it in airplane mode or alternatively, off the mobile data or wifi, depending on what you're using to browse the net.
  - We're good to go. Now you can open the Facebook app to view the stories without the poster seeing that you viewed them.
  - After you're done viewing them, force quit the app to make sure it doesn't run in the background when you reactivate the internet.
NOTE: While using this method, you may sometimes, experience issues like 'no internet connection'. When this happens, you can turn the internet back and reload the stories to see if it's loaded. If after this it doesn't still show up, you might want to try one of the two other methods below (which are less than ideal).

• Deactivate your account

Imagine mistakenly viewing your crush' Facebook photo and you don't want them to find out. The only way to get around it is by deactivating your Facebook for a period of 24 hours (or till the story clears). What I'm yet to find out is whether it'd be available in the archive, maybe you can try and tell us in the comment section.

Kindly note that you need to act fast, because, if the person checks the story viewers before you deactivate your account, your name will appear.

• Optional: creating a new profile

This might sound a little more extreme, but it actually works and it's so far, the most effective. When you create a new profile, the person wouldn't be able to tell that you're the person 'stalking' him or her.

The downside here is that if the person doesn't make his account public, you will have to first sneak into his friend list.

Conclusion

Out of the stated four methods, none is actually more ideal than the other, but what matters is that you eventually get what you want. While we all have different reasons for wanting to view Facebook stories anonymously, I believe Facebook has a reason for not activating the option yet.