Facebook provides a solution for you to unfriend someone on Facebook without them knowing. So, if you have friends that you feel obligated to stay connected with but don’t enjoy seeing their posts anymore, this guide is for you.
Generally, Facebook doesn’t notify anyone you unfriended them. Instead, the person gets to find out when they eventually stop seeing your posts and decide to check your profile.
How to unfriend someone on Facebook without them knowing
The general solution is unfollowing their profiles or adding them to your “Acquaintances” list to declutter your News Feed without completely unfriending them.
That said, below are the various methods to unfriend someone on Facebook without them knowing:
1. Remove the friend’s post from your newsfeed
To remove a friend’s posts from your Facebook News Feed, follow these steps:
- Log in to your Facebook account.
- Search for your friend’s name in the search bar located at the top of the Facebook page.
- If your friend has a recent post in your News Feed, you can click on their name to go directly to their account page.
- Locate the “Following” option, which should be to the right of their name on desktop and below their name and profile picture on mobile.
- Click or tap the “Following” option to open a menu.
- Select “Unfollow” from the menu.
Their posts will no longer appear in your News Feed, but you will still be friends on Facebook.
You may need to refresh your News Feed for the changes to take effect. This process will not unfriend someone on Facebook, but it will simply remove their posts from your News Feed without them knowing.
2. Change them from “friends” to “acquaintances”
You can also unfriend someone on Facebook without them knowing by adding them to your acquaintance list.
To use the “Acquaintances” feature on Facebook to reduce the visibility of friends’ posts in your News Feed, follow these steps:
- Log in to your Facebook account.
- Click the “Friends” tab on the left side of your Facebook page.
- Click the “Acquaintances” group.
- Click the “Add friends to this list” field in the top right corner of the page.
- Type the names of friends you want to add to the “Acquaintances” group.
- Once you have added all the friends you want, return to your News Feed.
When posting a status, you can choose to exclude your “Acquaintances” from viewing it by clicking the “Friends” option next to the “Post” button and selecting “Friends except acquaintances”.
This feature will be located under “More Options” at the bottom of the Facebook menu.
3. Unfollow the Facebook friend
Instead of unfriending the person, consider unfollowing them. The problem with unfriending a Facebook friend is that if you want to be friends with their profile again, you’ll need to add them as a friend again — Facebook.
a. Unfollowing multiple friends (Desktop)
To mass-unfollow friends on Facebook, follow these steps:
- Log in to your Facebook account.
- Click the menu button located in the top right corner of your screen, represented by a downward-facing arrow.
- Select “News Feed Preferences” from the drop-down menu.
- Click “Unfollow people to hide their posts”.
- This will take you to a list of all your Facebook friends. Select each friend you wish to unfollow by clicking on their name.
- Once you have selected all the friends you want to unfollow, click “Done”.
Their posts will no longer appear in your News Feed. Facebook will not ask for confirmation before unfollowing each friend, so be sure to double-check your selections before clicking “Done”. You may also need to refresh your News Feed for the changes to take effect.
b. Unfollowing multiple friends (Mobile)
To unfollow multiple friends on the Facebook mobile app, follow these steps:
- Open the Facebook app on your mobile device.
- Log in to your account, if you’re not already logged in.
- Tap the Facebook menu icon, represented by a stack of horizontal lines in the bottom right corner of your screen.
- Tap the “Settings” option to open your Facebook settings menu.
- Tap “News Feed Preferences”.
- Tap “Unfollow people to hide their posts”.
- This will bring up a list of all your Facebook friends. Tap each friend you wish to unfollow.
- Once you have selected all the friends you want to unfollow, tap “Done”.
Their posts will no longer appear in your News Feed. You may need to close and reopen the Facebook app for the changes to take effect.
4. Prevent the FB friend from seeing your posts
Another alternative way to unfriend someone on Facebook without them knowing is to prevent them from seeing your posts. To prevent a friend from seeing specific posts on Facebook, follow these steps:
- Open the Facebook app or log in to your Facebook account on a web browser.
- Navigate to the status creation field at the top of your screen. On mobile, tap the status creation field to view its options.
- Click the “Friends” button below the status creation field or the “Friends” option in the top left corner on mobile. This will bring up a drop-down menu with sharing options.
- Click “More Options” and then “Custom”. On mobile, tap “Friends except”.
- If you’re making a post that tags a user, consider unchecking the box next to “Friends of Tagged”.
- Type the name of the friend you wish to exclude in the field beneath the “Don’t share with” text. On mobile, tap the circle next to each friend you want to exclude.
- Click “Save Changes” or tap “Done” in the top right corner to save these changes.
These changes will reset your default sharing option to “Custom”, but you can change it back to “Friends” at any time from within the same menu. Also, the steps may be different depending on your Facebook platform — mobile (Android or iOS), desktop, or web.
Read also: create a new Facebook account now (with same phone number)
