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Tech

Facebook and Google Now Let You Erase Your Ex, Just Like in Black Mirror

You no longer have to block them to keep yourself from seeing sad reminders.
Rachel Pick
New York, US

Have you ever ended an intense relationship, only to be haunted by social media reminders of your whirlwind romance? Facebook and Google want to help you out: both Internet giants have now rolled out plans to help you erase ex-lovers from your social history.

Facebook's plan was announced Thursday, and it aims to help you get over a breakup by offering you some new options as soon as you change your relationship status. According to a post on Facebook's blog, these options include untagging yourself from photos with you and your ex, "[limiting] the photos, videos or status updates that a former partner will see," and keeping their posts off of your News Feed. It's currently in testing—right now, it's only on mobile and only in the US, but will presumably be expanded to other markets if it succeeds.

Google's offering at the end of last month is similar, with the updated Google Photos app letting you "hide a person from appearing." According to Fusion, "The new feature also prevents that person from appearing if you use Google's "Rediscover" app…Photos aren't deleted, they're just stashed away in a digital locker until they're not so emotionally draining." (Rediscover, like the Timehop app or the "Facebook Memories" feature, shows you social media posts from your past.)

Of course, this doesn't really address all the complexities of modern romance, particularly the hundreds of thousands—possibly millions—of people who are just "in a thing right now," something that doesn't merit a relationship status update but still has the capacity to break a heart. Sometimes you just gotta use willpower to keep from looking at old photos. Or block 'em.