Facebook wants to let people ask if you’re single or not

So you’ve hidden your relationship status on Facebook? That’s understandable; between the expectations of elderly relatives and the creepy strangers messaging you to say they like your profile picture, it’s sometimes better to just keep that particular piece of information private.

Now though, it looks like Facebook is trying to play dating service by introducing a button that allows people visiting your profile to ask if you’re single or not.

According to Mashable, the feature is being rolled out specifically to people who don’t list their relationship status on their profile and is only visible to the person visiting the profile.

If you click “ask”, you’ll be presented with a dialogue box that lets you send the person a message relating to your query about their relationship status.

The owner of the page is then sent a request to list a status that only the sender can see. The information remains private to the majority of your social network and you can also choose not to share it with the sender.

While the sudden success of dating apps such as Tinder means that the feature makes a lot of sense from a usability point of view , it’s also worth noting that Facebook’s motives for introducing the feature have less to do with helping you hook up and more to do with its own ability to make money.

Whether you choose to share your relationship status with your wider social network or not, it now has that information and can more effectively target you with custom ads.