To control who can see your Facebook Reels, set a default audience for future Reels or choose a different audience for an individual Reel. Facebook’s main default control is in Settings & privacy → Settings → Audience and visibility → Reels; the audience selector for one Reel is available while creating it and can be changed later.
Choose the audience for future Reels
- Open your Facebook profile menu and select Settings & privacy, then Settings.
- Under Audience and visibility, select Reels.
- Beside Who can see your reels?, select the current audience, choose a new one, and save.
This is the default for future Reels, including Reels shared from Instagram. The available options Facebook documents are:
- Public: Anyone can see the Reel, including people who are not on Facebook.
- Friends: Only your Facebook friends can see it.
- Friends except…: Your Facebook friends can see it except the friends you select.
Set or change the audience for one Reel
Before publishing
When creating a Reel, open the audience selector and choose who can see it before you publish. This choice is for that Reel; changing the default setting does not change the default for future Reels.
After publishing
Facebook says you can change the audience of a specific Reel at any time. Open that Reel’s audience control and select the new audience. The exact controls may vary by profile type and interface.
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Check the Facebook audience when cross-posting from Instagram
Instagram’s audience and Facebook’s audience are separate. If you share a Reel from Instagram to Facebook without having selected a Facebook default, Facebook says it automatically sets that default to Friends for a private Instagram account or Public for a public Instagram account. Because your Instagram followers and Facebook friends may not be the same people, check the Facebook audience control before sharing.
Why the menu may look different
Facebook says the Videos tab was renamed the Reels tab in June 2025 and describes a rollout in which all videos posted to Facebook would be shared as Reels. Older instructions that refer to Videos may not match the current interface. Look for Reels under Audience and visibility; if the labels differ, search your current Facebook Settings for Reels audience controls. Facebook also notes that settings can vary by profile type.
If your profile is locked, Facebook says you cannot choose Public while creating a Reel. The available options may therefore differ from those shown in instructions for other profiles.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the audience setting does—and does not promise
The audience selector controls who Facebook allows to view a Reel; it is not a guarantee that viewers cannot record, copy, or redistribute what they see. Facebook also notes that content hidden from a timeline may still appear elsewhere on Facebook, including Feed and search, to the audience it was shared with. Choose an audience with that limitation in mind.
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Quick Recap
Facebook Help Center sources
- Control who can see your reels on Facebook
- Who can see your reels on Facebook
- Manage your privacy settings on Facebook
- About videos on Facebook
- Who can see what I post on my Facebook profile?
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