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It has become a common sight on Facebook and Instagram - the 'relfie', a selfie with a partner, both gazing lovingly into the camera.

However, researchers have warned that the snaps are a double edged sword - while they are often a sign of a strong relationship, too many will make your friends hate you.

The first study of the phenomenon warned that the relfie can quickly become 'too much of a good thing'.

The relfie, or 'relationship selfie' can quickly become annoying for friends, researchers have warned - but is a sign of a strong relationship.

The study by Dr. Benjamin Le od the University of Haverford, to be published in the journal Personal Relationships, found that people tended to think their friends were in happier relationships when they first started posting pictures together, or referred to each other in relationship statuses.

'The take home message is that others will assume you are in a good relationship if you post relfies, change your status to 'in a relationship with…', and talk about your relationship on Facebook,' the team wrote.

'In addition, people viewing your profile are pretty accurate in their ratings of your relationship.

'If you are in a strong relationship, viewers can pick that up from your Facebook profile.

'However, there is some danger in getting too schmoopie about your relationship on Facebook; although your friends will think your relationship is going well, they will like you less.'

Researchers created fake Facebook accounts and then asked 100 participants to assess how happy the people were in the displayed relationship, as well as how much they liked the couple overall, based on their status updates.

The posts ranged from high relationship disclosure such as 'Ugh, can't get enough of this man! to low relationship disclosure such as 'I love my girlfriend <3' to no relationship disclosure ('phoneless for a bit, email me!'.

Researchers say the relfies were associated with perceptions of satisfaction and commitment in the relationship.

Dr Lee said the results showed that, while people initially liked the status and perceived them to be in a strong relationship, they quickly changed their view as more were posted.

'When it comes to status updates, we found that higher levels of relationship disclosure were positively associated with perceptions of satisfaction and commitment,' he wrote.

'However, when it comes to relationship disclosure on Facebook, there can be too much of a good thing.

'Those disclosing a lot about their relationships were the least liked.'

Participants with relfies were judged to have higher quality relationships

'In short, viewers can glean your relationship quality relatively accurately from what you post about your relationship on Facebook, and they perceive your relationship as better when you have a dyadic profile picture (like a relfie) and dyadic relationship status,' the team said.

In s second study, we created fictional Facebook profiles and over 100 participants then judged each fictional Facebook profile on how much they thought the people in the profiles were satisfied and committed to their relationships.

Finally, participants rated the extent to which they liked each person depicted in the Facebook profiles.

'We found that people depicted in profiles with dyadic pictures and statuses were judged to have better relationships and were better liked. 

'When it comes to status updates, we found that higher levels of relationship disclosure were positively associated with perceptions of satisfaction and commitment.

'However, when it comes to relationship disclosure on Facebook, there can be too much of a good thing.

'Those disclosing a lot about their relationships were the least liked.'