Ethan Brooks
How To Disable Your Active Status on Facebook for Privacy
If you’re tired of everyone knowing exactly when you’re online, turning off your active status is the way to go. Sometimes, it’s just nice to be semi-private without totally logging out or blocking, especially if you still want to use Messenger or peek at your friends’ updates—but secretly. This guide is all about making sure your online activity stays hidden, whether you’re on iOS, Android, or even on the desktop with Windows. The whole process sounds straightforward, but guess what? Facebook makes it a little tricky because you have to disable it separately on app and Messenger, and sometimes settings don’t sync immediately. Not sure why it works that way, but yeah, expect some fiddling involved. The end goal is to have others see you as offline, even if you’re glued to Facebook getting your meme fix or cat videos.
How to Turn Off Active Status on Facebook and Messenger
Find the Active Status Setting in the App
First, open the Facebook app on your device. It’s usually on the home screen or app drawer. Tap on your profile picture or the profile icon in the top right corner. Scroll down through your profile until you spot Settings & Privacy. Tap it, then go into Settings. From there, look for the section labeled Active Status—it might be tucked in under Privacy settings or somewhere similar. If it’s not immediately obvious, poke around a bit—sometimes menu labels are inconsistent, especially on different OS versions or updates.
Disable Active Status in Settings
Once you find Active Status, tap it. You’ll see a toggle in the form of an on/off switch—if it’s enabled (usually highlighted in blue or green), tap it to turn it off. That’s supposed to hide your online presence from friends. It’s not perfect—on some apps, the change might take a few seconds to propagate, or you might need to restart the app. Also, be aware that turning it off means you won’t see when friends are online either, which is kind of fair trade-off.
Double-Check That It’s Off
After toggling, go back to the Active Status menu just to confirm it’s in the off position. Sometimes, especially on Android or iOS, the setting might revert or not save correctly. In my experience, on some setups, you might have to do it twice or reopen the app to see the change. Plus, if you’re using Messenger separately, you need to repeat this in the Messenger app because disabling in Facebook doesn’t automatically disable it there.
Disable Active Status in Messenger
Open the Messenger app, tap your profile picture in the top left, scroll down to Active Status. Just like before, toggle the switch off. This ensures your friends don’t see you as “online” there either. It’s kind of weird, but Facebook treats Messenger almost like a different app—disabling one doesn’t instantly disable the other. On one setup it worked fine after changing the Facebook app, on another I had to do it separately. Because of course, Facebook has to make it harder than necessary.
Extra Tips & Troubleshooting
If active status still shows up after you turn it off, try logging out and back in, or even reinstalling the apps. Sometimes, cached settings or bugs cause it to hang around. Another thing—if privacy is priority, disable activity status on both platforms. Also, check if you have any update pending for Facebook or Messenger—sometimes bug fixes are in those patches. And yeah, don’t forget that disabling active status means you won’t see when your friends are online either, which can be a pro or a con depending on your mood.
Wrap-up
This whole thing isn’t super complicated, but it’s not exactly click-and-forget either. Changing your settings in Facebook and Messenger is straightforward once you know where to look, but Facebook’s need to separate the two leads to some confusion. Sometimes, a quick app restart or a logout is enough to get the new setting working right. Overall, turning off active status gives you a bit more peace of mind when you want to browse without alerting everyone else. Just keep in mind, it’s a manual process—and not always perfectly synchronized.
Summary
- Find Active Status under Settings & Privacy.
- Toggle it off in both Facebook and Messenger apps if needed.
- Check and restart apps if changes don’t apply immediately.
- Remember, disabling active status in one app doesn’t automatically disable it everywhere.