If you’re someone who loves to chat and talk with your friends on Facebook, you’re probably aware that you can see a list of friends who are currently online. It’s nice to know that your crush has logged in to Facebook so that you can say hello to her, isn’t it? The problem is, many of us don’t want to appear online for a variety of reasons. Fortunately, Facebook allows you to turn off your active status so that you will appear offline to all or some of your friends.
There are several reasons why you would want to turn off active status and appear offline. Perhaps you want to avoid a persistent admirer who is always waiting for you to go online on Facebook. Or maybe you just don’t want to entertain messages from friends who saw you on the active list. Whatever your reason is, there is a quick and easy way to hide your active status on Facebook so that your contacts will never know that you are online.
You can choose to appear offline to all your Facebook friends and contacts, or turn off active status only for some contacts. Keep in mind that by turning off active status for all your contacts, you will no longer be able to see if they are active or recently active. If you want to appear offline only to certain users, you can turn off active status for your chosen contacts (this only works on the Facebook website, by the way).
Take note that turning off active status on Facebook will not be applied universally across all your devices. So even if you turn off active status on the Facebook app, you will still appear as active if you use Messenger or login to your Facebook account on your computer. If you want to appear offline at all times, you must turn off active status on every device, browser and app you’re using.
So are you interested to know how to appear offline on Facebook? Let’s dive into the details.
Turn Off Active Status on Facebook Mobile App
Turning off your active status on the Facebook app will hide the fact that you’re online so you can browse your news feed peacefully. The Facebook app is separate from Messenger so if you open the Messenger app, you will then appear online unless you also turn off your active status on Messenger.
Open the Facebook app and tap the menu icon on the upper-right corner. Scroll down and tap Settings & Privacy.
Next, select Settings.
Scroll down and choose Active Status (it’s under Audience and Visibility).
Turn off the toggle switch for “Show when you’re active.”
Confirm that you want to turn off active status by clicking TURN OFF.
That’s it. You’ve turned off your active status on the Facebook app. As we’ve previously mentioned, this setting only applies for the Facebook app so if you use Messenger, you will appear as online. To avoid that, you can also turn off active status on Facebook Messenger.
Turn Off Active Status on Facebook Messenger
It’s pretty easy to hide your active status on Facebook Messenger. First, open Messenger and then tap your profile photo on the upper-left corner.
You’ll be shown several options for your account. Tap Active Status.
Turn off the toggle switch for “Show when you’re active.”
Confirm that you want to turn off active status by pressing TURN OFF.
Congratulations! You’ve successfully turned off your active status on Facebook Messenger. You can confirm that you’re offline by asking a friend to check if you are active on Messenger. Active users are indicated by a green dot next to their profile photos.
Since you’ve turned off your active status, you won’t be able to see when your friends and contacts are active. You can control which friends and contacts can see that you’re online by turning off the active status setting on the Facebook website.
Turn Off Active Status on Facebook Website
The Facebook website allows you to filter the contacts who won’t be able to see your active status. Apparently, this only works for the desktop version of Facebook using a web browser like Google Chrome, which means that if you login to Facebook or Messenger on the mobile app, you will appear online for all your contacts (or offline if you turned off active status on the mobile app).
Here’s how to hide your active status on Facebook website. Go to Contacts on the right sidebar and click the Options icon next to it (it’s indicated by three horizontal dots).
The Chat Settings menu will pop out. Click Turn Off Active Status.
A popup dialog will appear with three options:
- Turn off active status for all contacts – You will appear offline to everyone.
- Turn off active status for all contacts except – Choose this option to select which contacts can see that you are online.
- Turn off active status for only some contacts – Choose this option to select which contacts you will appear offline to.
Select your desired option and choose the contacts to appear online or offline to, if applicable. Click Okay to apply your settings.
You have now hidden your active status to all your friends or to a selected group of contacts.
Conclusion
Facebook is a great tool to keep in touch with your friends and loved ones no matter the distance. However, it can sometimes be a crutch due to the lack of privacy that it affords to its users. You can take some degree of control over your privacy by turning off your active status on Facebook, allowing you to browse your news feed in relative peace and quiet.
We hope that this article helped you in your desire to appear offline on Facebook. Don’t forget to share it with your friends who might also be interested.
