How to Tag Friends in Facebook Posts

Tag Facebook friends to draw their attention to your post

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by Linda Roeder
This longtime web enthusiast and consultant has a broad knowledge of how personal web pages work.
Updated December 09, 2018

Tagging in Facebook occurs when you include a friend's name as a link in one of your posts. It's as easy as typing the person's Facebook name and then selecting that friend's profile from a pop-up menu.

What to Expect When You Tag Someone

Anyone you tag is notified that you've included them in the post. Other people who see the post can select the tagged person's name to visit that person's profile if that friend's privacy permissions allow it.

If the person you tagged has set the privacy settings to "public," your post shows up on that person's profile and on their friends' News Feed. In some cases, your friend may have to approve the link before it appears to that person's friends.

Directions for Tagging Facebook Friends

Tagging friends works from the desktop Facebook site and from the mobile app, but there are some differences in what the options are called, as noted below.

  1. Go to the Make Post section at the top of your News Feed or profile page.

    For mobile users, tap What's on your mind? at the top of the News Feed or profile section.

  2. Type @ immediately followed by the person's name you want to tag.

    In our example, typing @Amy automatically suggests a list of friends with that name.

    Screenshot showing how to tag a friend in a Facebook post
    Jon Fisher 

  3. Find the person from the drop-down menu whom you want to tag in the post, and click or tap that entry to convert the "@" text to the person's name.

    Screenshot of a friend tagged in a Facebook post
     Jon Fisher 

  4. Continue writing the rest of your post in the way you normally would, and select Share when you're done.

Another way to tag friends in posts is to click Tag Friends (desktop) or tap Tag People (mobile) under the text box. When you do it this way, the friends will be listed in a "With <friend's name> and <other friend>" line under the post instead of linked from within the text of the post, as in our example above.

How to Remove a Tag From a Post

To remove a tag you placed in one of your own posts, click the menu button on the upper right-hand corner of your post and click Edit Post. Remove the name with the tag and click Save.

If you want to remove yourself from a tagged post that someone else made, click the menu button on the upper right-hand corner of the post and click Remove tag. You won't be tagged in the post anymore, but your name may appear in other places like News Feed or Search.