What Is Tagging on Facebook?

"Tagging" is a social feature that started on Facebook. It involves linking a friend's name and profile to a social networking photo, post or comment.

Tagging Explained

In the beginning, Facebook tagging could only be done with photos. Today, however, you can incorporate tagging into virtually any type of Facebook post.

A tag is essentially a clickable name that appears in the caption of a photo. When you roll your cursor over the photo that has tagged users in it, you'll see those users' names appear over the photo (often over their faces).

This made a lot of sense back when it was exclusively meant for photos because anyone who uploaded photos could tag their friends who appeared in them to put a name to each face.

How Tagging Works on Facebook

When you tag someone in a post, you create a “special kind of link,” as Facebook puts it. It actually links a person’s profile to the post, and the person tagged in the photo is always notified about it.

If the tagged user's privacy settings are set to public, the post will show up on their own personal profile and in the news feed of their friends. It may show up on their timeline either automatically or upon approval from them, depending on how their tag settings are configured, which we'll discuss next.

Configuring Your Tag Settings

Facebook has a whole section dedicated to configuring settings for your timeline and tagging. At the top of your profile on Facebook.com, look for the little down arrow icon beside the Home button on the top right and click on it.

Choose Settings and then click on Timeline and Tagging in the left sidebar. You’ll see a number of tagging options here that you can configure.

Who can see posts you’re tagged in on your timeline?: If you set this to Everyone, then every user that views your profile will be able to see tagged photos of you, even if you’re not friends with them. Alternatively, you can choose the Custom option so that only close friends or even just you alone can see your tagged photos.

When you're tagged in a post, who do you want to add to the audience if they aren't already in it?: People who are tagged will be able to see the post, but other people who aren't tagged won't necessarily see it. If you'd like all your friends or a custom friends group to be able to see other friends' posts you're tagged in even though they haven't been tagged in them, you can set this up with this option.

Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline?: Set this to On if you don’t want photos you've been tagged in to go live on your own timeline before you approve each of them. You can reject the tag if you don’t want to be tagged. This can be a useful feature for avoiding unflattering photos from showing up on your profile suddenly for all your friends to see.

Review what other people see on your timeline: Select View As to look at your profile as a user who's not friends or connected with you in any way. You'll be able to see if your tagged photos show here or not, depending on your settings.

Review tags people add to your own posts before the tags appear on Facebook?: Your friends can tag themselves or you in photos belonging to your own albums. If you want to be able to approve or reject them before they go live and appear on your timeline (as well as in the news feeds of your friends), you can do this by selecting On.

How to Tag Someone in a Photo or Post

Tagging a photo is very easy. Follow steps 1 to 4 to learn how to tag someone in a photo, or skip to step 5 to learn how to tag someone in a post or comment.

1. When you’re viewing a photo on Facebook.com, look for the Tag Photo option at the bottom and select it.

2. Click on the photo (such as a friend’s face) to start the tagging.

3. A drop-down box with your friend list should appear, so you can select the friend or type in their name to find them faster.

4. Select Done Tagging when you’ve finished tagging all your friends in the photo. You can add an option location or edit whenever you want.

5. To tag someone in a regular Facebook post or even a post comment, all you have to do is type an @ symbol and then start typing the user's name that you want to tag, directly beside the symbol without any spaces.

   Similar to photo tagging, typing "@name" in a regular post will display a drop-down box with a list of suggestions of people to tag. You can also do this in comment sections of posts.

   It's worth noting that Facebook allows you to tag people you aren't friends with if you're having a conversation in the comments and want them to see your comment.

Removing a Photo Tag

You can remove a tag someone gave you by viewing the photo, selecting Options at the bottom, and then selecting Report/Remove Tag. Now you have two options to choose from:

I want to remove the tag: Check this box to remove the tag from your profile and from the photo.

Ask to have the photo removed from Facebook: If you think this photo is inappropriate in any way, you can report it to Facebook so they can decide if it needs to be removed.

Removing a Post Tag

If you want to remove a tag from a post or from a post's comment that you left on it, you can simply do so by editing it. Just select the downward arrow button in the top right corner of your post and select Edit Post beneath to edit it and take the tag out.

If it's a comment you left on a post that you want to remove a tag from, you can do the same by selecting the downward arrow in the top right of your specific comment and selecting Edit.

For more information about Facebook photo tagging, you can visit Facebook’s official Help page that may help you answer any more of your questions about photo tagging.