Who can see what you share
In short
New accounts are public. Posts reach the widest audience, stories a chosen one, chat only its participants. Check by viewing your profile signed out.
This explains our formal policy, which remains the authoritative version.
Public by default
A new account is public: the profile and anything posted publicly can be seen by anyone, including people who are not signed in and search engines.
That is the correct default for a service people arrive at from search, but it is worth knowing rather than discovering later.
Reach, narrowest to widest
A chat message reaches only the people in that conversation. A story reaches your chosen story audience and expires. A post or reel reaches the widest audience and stays.
Expiry limits how long something is shown. It does not limit who captured it while it was up, and it cannot un-share something already seen.
Hiding your account
Hiding narrows your account's reach to friends. It is a visibility control, not a deactivation: you keep posting, and friends see everything as before.
It is tracked separately from account suspension, which is an enforcement action. One is a choice you make; the other is a decision about your account.
Verify from outside
Open your profile in a private window while signed out. That is what the public actually sees.
Do this after changing any visibility setting. Settings tell you what you asked for; the signed-out view tells you what happened.