With more than 2.2 billion international users as of 2018, Facebook is bound to have an endless amount of friendship overlap in its enormous, ever-expanding social network. If you're curious about the friends you have in common with your friends, the friends you have in common with strangers, or – for some reason – the friends two strangers have in common, you have a variety of options for finding out this information. Get friendly with Facebook's features and dig in.
Friends Among Friends
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The most straightforward way to see friendships between two Facebook users is to scope out the friends you have in common with your existing Facebook connections.
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Head to the Timeline of any current Facebook friend, and click the "Friends" tab. Before you even click, you'll see a number indicating how many mutual friends you two share. Now click "Mutual Friends," and you'll be greeted with a full list of all the connections you two have in common. Who knows – you might find some surprises in there. Be aware, though, that this does not work if your friend has increased the friends list privacy level.
While you're on Facebook, search the friends list of any current connection by going to their Timeline, clicking the "Friends" tab and entering your search query in the "Search friends" field.
Facebook Mutual Friends: A Trick
If you want to expand the scope of your mutual friend search, it's time to employ a little URL trickery. This off-the-books method to cross-reference Facebook friends – whether the two people in question are your current connections or not – will make you feel like a pro hacker on "NCIS."
First, track down each person's personal Facebook Timeline URL. To get that info, head to each of their individual Timelines. You need to use a browser, not the Facebook mobile app, to do this. In the address bar, you'll see a URL format like this:
That last part with the name is what you're after. Once you have that information for both people – say their Facebook URL names are "jane.jones" and "miles.miller3," for example – type in a URL that looks like this:
This method shows you how many friends these two people have in common, but does not tell you who those mutual friends are. If they're both strangers, that would be creepy.
Who Can See My Friends?
Now that you know how to view friendships on Facebook, you might be wondering who can peek at your friends. Good news: You're in control of that.
To customize who is able to see your friends list, go to your Facebook Timeline and select the "Friends" tab. Click on the "Manage" icon, which looks like a pencil, and select "Edit Privacy." Under "Friend List," choose "Public," "Friends," or "Only me" from the drop-down menu to determine exactly who can view your friends list. You can even select "Custom" to input the specific names of friends you'd like to share your friends list with and the friends you don't want to share with. After you chose the privacy setting you're comfy with, press "Done" or "Save Changes" to lock in your decision.