How to Turn off Facebook Chat

Updated December 01, 2019

Do you need to block Facebook friends from seeing you in Facebook chat so you can get some things done, free from distraction? Blocking friends from Facebook chat requires a few steps, but can be done and works great.

When you turn off chat for Facebook friends, it doesn't mean that nobody can message you. Instead, you'll just not notified of the messages. Anything you receive while chat is off will show up in your inbox when you re-enable chat.

There are two different ways you can disable Facebook chat. You can do so globally so that you can't chat with anyone or you can turn off chat for specific friends only so that it still works with other friends.

Disable All of Facebook Chat

Turning off active status will prevent anyone from chatting with you on Facebook.

Access your Facebook profile.
On the chat menu on the side of the screen, select the small Options button.
Select Turn Off Active Status.
In the window that shows, make sure the option for Turn off chat for all contacts is selected.
Select the Okay button to apply the changes and close the window.

With Facebook chat completely disabled, the whole chat area will remain white and no conversations are clickable. Select Turn on Active Status to re-enable it.

Turn off Facebook Chat for Certain Friends Only

You can opt to leave chat accessible to specific Facebook friends but appear offline to everyone else if you choose.

Access your Facebook profile and select the chat menu Options button.
Select Turn Off Active Status.
There are one of two options you can choose here:
- Select Turn off chat for all contacts except if you want to hide from Facebook chat for most of your contacts but you want a select few to still be able to message.
- Choose to Turn off chat for only some contacts if there are just a few Facebook friends that you want to disable chat for.
Start entering the names of the friends you want to block from chat, and then select them as they're suggested to you.
When you're finished choosing which friends should be blocked, select Okay.