How to Hide When You're on Facebook

There are two main ways to hide your online status from Facebook users. You can either restrict them from chatting with you or block them entirely.

Under normal circumstances, without changing any settings, all the friends you see in the chat area can also see that you're online. You can make changes to these settings so that only some of them can see that you're on Facebook, or you can make it so that nobody can.

The difference is that when you hide someone from chat, you don't actually block much except for their ability to see that you're online and ready to chat. On the other hand, if you block the user from your Facebook profile, they won't be able to add you as a friend, message you, invite you to groups or events, see your timeline or tag you in posts.

Tip: Another option that doesn't hide a friend from chat or disables contact completely, is to simply hide their posts. 

You can turn off chat for all your friends, some friends only or everyone except the ones you add to the list. Remember that this will only block the user from messaging you, not prevent them from accessing your timeline or adding you as a friend (see the next section for that).

1. With Facebook open, click the small options gear icon on the bottom right of the chat screen.
2. Click Turn Off Chat.
3. Choose the option you want to enable:
   1. ​Turn off chat for only some contacts: Type the name of one or more friends that you want to hide from. Only these contacts will be prevented from chatting with you.
   2. Turn off chat for all contacts except: This will prevent all your Facebook friends from seeing you and messaging you on chat. However, you can add names to this list so that only those contacts can chat with you.
   3. Turn off chat for all contacts: Enable this option to shut down all the chat functions on Facebook and prevent any and all friends from chatting with you.
4. Click Okay to confirm the changes.

Make this change so that someone is completely blocked from accessing your page, sending your private messages, adding you as a friend, tagging you in posts, etc. However, it does not hide them from games, groups you're both a part of or apps.

Open the Manage Blocking section of your account settings and then skip down to Step 4. Or, follow these steps in order:

1. Click the small arrow to the far right side of the top Facebook menu (the one next to the Quick Help question mark icon).
2. Choose Settings.
3. Select Blocking from the left menu.
4. In the Block users section, enter the person's name and click Block.
5. In the new Block People window that shows, find the correct person you want to hide from on Facebook.
6. Click the Block button next to their name.
7. A confirmation will show. Click Block <person's name> to block and unfriend them (if you're currently Facebook friends).

You can unblock someone by returning to Step 3 and choosing the Unblock link next to their name.

Note: If you want to block apps, invites or pages, use those respective areas on this same Manage Blocking page to apply those changes.