Strikethrough Text on Facebook

Why Facebook has no native strikethrough

Facebook has long resisted adding Markdown or rich-text formatting to its plain post and comment composer. The main rationale is readability at scale: with billions of daily posts in dozens of languages, uncontrolled formatting is considered a noise vector. Facebook does support rich text in some limited contexts (Workplace for Facebook, some group post formats, Messenger), but the core post/comment composer remains plain text.

This leaves Unicode combining characters as the only universal workaround. They work because Facebook transmits and stores text as Unicode without stripping or modifying code points, and every device that renders Facebook — smartphone, tablet, desktop browser — has a Unicode-capable text renderer.

Strikethrough in Facebook posts

To add struck text to a Facebook post: generate your text using the tool above, copy the output, click "What's on your mind?" to open the composer, and paste. The Facebook composer renders Unicode combining characters in real time — you will see the strikethrough in the composer preview before publishing.

Facebook posts have no character limit (though very long posts are truncated with a "See more" expander). You can use as much struck text as you need. The format works equally in:

• Personal timeline posts
• Group posts
• Page posts (business pages)
• Event descriptions
• Marketplace listings

Strikethrough in Facebook comments

Facebook comment fields accept Unicode combining characters identically to post composers. Generate the struck text, copy it, click the comment field under the post or in any comment thread, paste, and submit. Replies in threads also accept the Unicode combining characters.

One practical use: when correcting an earlier comment, you can add a reply with the original wrong statement struck through, followed by the corrected text, to make the correction visible without deleting the original.

Strikethrough in your Facebook profile name

Facebook technically enforces a "real name" policy that discourages non-standard characters in profile names, but Unicode combining characters are not blocked at the input level — they pass through name validation without error. Many accounts use creative Unicode name styling without any consequence.

To add struck text to your display name: go to Profile → Edit Profile → Name → First or Last Name field → paste the generated struck text → Save. If Facebook's name policy enforcement queries your account, you may be asked to provide ID confirming your name, at which point you would need to revert to plain text.

For safer application, use struck text in the About section, intro, or the bio field — these are free-text fields with no name policy enforcement.

Facebook Messenger strikethrough

Facebook Messenger does support a limited form of text formatting: wrapping text in ~~text~~ produces native strikethrough in the Messenger chat interface on recent versions of the iOS and Android apps. If you are messaging through Messenger specifically (not on Facebook itself), the native double-tilde method is available.

In the web version of Messenger accessed through facebook.com, the double-tilde method also works in messages. The Unicode combining approach works everywhere in Messenger as a fallback.

Facebook Pages and Business use

Business page admins often use struck text in promotional posts to highlight discounts ("was $199, now $129"), limited-time offers, and corrections to previous announcements. The struck text draws visual attention in the Facebook news feed, where the combining-character line stands out against normal text.

Facebook Business Suite posts, scheduled posts, and boosted posts all preserve Unicode combining characters through the scheduling and publication pipeline. The struck formatting will appear correctly in the published post regardless of when or how it was scheduled.