Lately, all your friends have been talking about a video published on a Facebook page. Curious about the topic, you’d like to watch the video, but since you are not registered on the popular social network and have no intention of creating an account, you wonder if it’s possible to access the content anyway. For this reason, you did some searches on the Web and ended up right here in my guide.
Is this the case, right? Then let me tell you that you’ve come to the right place at the right time! In the next paragraphs, I will explain to you how to access Facebook as a visitor from a computer, smartphone, and tablet, without creating an account. Besides telling you which sections of the social network are accessible without an account and what the limitations are for unregistered users, you will also find the detailed procedure to access the relevant sections and use the available features.
Is that exactly what you wanted to know? Then let’s not waste any more time and get straight to the action. Make yourself comfortable, take five minutes of free time to read the next paragraphs, and follow the instructions I’m about to give you. I assure you that by trying to implement my tips on your device of choice, you will be able to access the sections of Facebook that do not require an account. Enjoy your reading!
Table of Contents
- Preliminary Information
- How to Access Facebook as a Visitor from PC
- How to Access Facebook as a Visitor from Smartphone and Tablet
Preliminary Information
If you’re wondering if it’s possible to access Facebook as a visitor, I’m sorry to tell you that it’s not entirely possible. There are many limitations when accessing certain sections of the social network; some profiles are not even available for viewing. Much depends on the privacy settings chosen by the account owners, who can decide to hide their profile. Therefore, you can give it a try, but know that even if you manage to see the page in question, the visible content is limited.
In short, those who do not intend to create an account on Facebook can search on Google for pages of interest and use the link to access them. By connecting to the social network’s website, in fact, it’s not possible to perform searches: you can only access or register.
Before detailing how to proceed, I have some other useful information to give you. When accessing Marketplace or a Facebook page, the social platform asks you to log in to see more: initially, you can close this notice by pressing the X in the top right corner and scroll through the page. In Marketplace, you can also interact with the controls in the left column to filter your search. However, after a while, as you scroll, the login notice reappears, and this time there’s no X to close it: you must log in or create an account to continue browsing.
As for user profiles, the available content is very limited and not always accessible. In some cases, you get a message about the content not being available because the owner has changed the settings regarding who can see their profile. In other cases, you can click on the X when asked to log in and view some account information, such as the profile picture, cover image, Information, Photos, and Videos, but always according to the privacy settings chosen by the user. This also applies if you had the direct link to the profile.
To access Facebook as a visitor from a smartphone or tablet, you will need to proceed as just mentioned, through a browser installed on your device (e.g., Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS/iPadOS) and activate the desktop version of the Facebook site (on iPad, it’s unnecessary since Safari loads all sites in desktop mode by default). This is because it’s not possible to use the Facebook app for Android and iPhone/iPad devices without an account.
For this reason, to keep things convenient, I will first provide you with instructions on using Facebook without registering from PC and then show you how to do it from smartphones and tablets.
How to Access Facebook as a Visitor from PC
With this necessary premise out of the way, you’re ready to discover how to enter Facebook as a visitor from PC. As you may have already guessed, it’s not possible to access directly from the home of the social network because there are no longer buttons for free navigation. So head to Google to perform your search.
If you need to search for a page or account, search [page name] Facebook or [first name and last name] Facebook or Facebook Marketplace and click on the link that leads to the social platform to access the page or the search results in case of people, as there may be more people with the same name and surname.
Now, as I suggested in the initial paragraphs, click the X when asked to log in and continue navigating as long as Facebook allows it. In Marketplace, you can also click on a listing to expand it, but you cannot send any messages to the seller or buy or sell.
On pages, however, you can browse through the Posts, Information, Photos, and Videos, always for a limited time.
Once the login request reappears, you’ll have to give up. If you’re not satisfied with what you’ve seen, you can close the window and attempt to access as a visitor again to explore other sections and view other items. Unfortunately, this is the only solution as I write. The same applies to the Facebook Watch section dedicated to videos.
As for user profiles, as already mentioned in the introduction, it’s not always possible to view them because users can choose to make them visible or not. So you might be lucky or unlucky and see a message about unavailable content. I remind you that if you do not find the profile by searching on Google, it would be useless to ask someone for the direct link, because if it’s not visible, you still wouldn’t be able to see it.
Here’s a good piece of news, don’t lose hope. Those who need to spy on someone on Facebook have actually very limited tools if they don’t want to create an account (and try to enter a profile even without friendship), but if you need to see a page post or a video or anything else, if the privacy of that post is set to Public, then all you have to do is ask for the link of that post.
When the post is Public, there’s a globe next to the time it was published, so ask someone who can pass you the link to click on that time to open the post’s page, now all they have to do is copy the link in the address bar at the top (a link can be copied on mobile as well) and paste it in your chat (here are instructions for copying and pasting on mobile). Great, now it’s your turn: click on the link in question and enjoy watching the post or video. Remember that you can only view and cannot interact.
You should know that you can also save any photos of interest (for this purpose, my guide on how to save photos from Facebook might be useful) but to post a comment, send a private message, or any other interaction with the respective page, it is necessary to create a profile.
How to Access Facebook as a Visitor from Smartphone and Tablet
As mentioned in the introductory lines of this guide, it is not possible to access Facebook as a visitor using the app of the famous social network for smartphones and tablets. However, you can use the browser installed on your mobile device, connect to the official Facebook site, and activate the desktop version of it.
To proceed, take your smartphone or tablet, launch the browser you usually use to navigate the Internet, and go to the main Facebook page. Now, if you have an Android device or use the Chrome app, tap on the ⋮ icon and select Desktop Site from the menu that appears.
If you are using Safari, press the button with a rectangle and two lines below, located at the bottom left, and continue by tapping the icon ⋯. Now toggle the switch for the Desktop Site option to ON and tap Done at the top. If you have an iPad and are using Safari, you do not need to do anything as this browser loads all sites in desktop mode by default.
At this point, you just need to access the section of interest by following the instructions I provided in the paragraphs dedicated to using Facebook without an account from a computer.