By: Waseem Patwegar
Facebook makes it easy to block people from seeing all your friends, but is there a way to hide one friend from another on Facebook? Let us go ahead and find out.
Hide One Friend from Another on Facebook
In general, once you become a friend with someone on Facebook, the other person will be able to see all your friends.
However, you may come across a situation where you may want to be friends with two people on Facebook without them being able to see each other in your list of Facebook friends.
Such situation can arise, if these two individuals have just separated or developed serious differences between them.
Unfortunately, there is no option in Facebook to prevent two people from seeing each other, while still being able see all your other Friends.
Hence, we are providing below a workaround that gets the job done by preventing these two individuals from being able to see your Facebook Friends.
Hide One Friend from Another on Facebook
As mentioned above, this is a workaround that hides these two individuals from each other, as both of them won’t be able to view your Facebook Friends.
1. Login to your Facebook Account on a Computer.
2. Once you are logged-in, click on your Name and then click on the Friends tab.
3. On the Friends page, click on the Pencil Icon > Edit Privacy .
4. In Edit Privacy section, click on the down arrow icon located at the top right corner of “Who can see your friends list” and click on the Custom option in the drop-down menu.
5. On the next screen, type the Names of the two individuals that you want to hide from each other in Don’t share with section.
6. Click on Save Changes to save this setting in your Facebook Account.
After this, both these individuals won’t be able to see your Facebook Friends and this currently is the only way to hide one friend from another on Facebook.
Except for these two individuals, your other Friends will be able to see all your Friends on Facebook.
Jason Fitzpatrick is the Editor in Chief of LifeSavvy, How-To Geek’s sister site focused life hacks, tips, and tricks. He has over a decade of experience in publishing and has authored thousands of articles at Review Geek, How-To Geek, and Lifehacker. Jason served as Lifehacker’s Weekend Editor before he joined How-To Geek. Read more.
Facebook might be updating menus and interfaces left and right, but that sure doesn’t mean they make them easier to use in the process. The poor menu design and vague terminology makes it pretty difficult to make changes (or to undo those changes), in many cases. Read on as we help a reader liven up their news feed by returning previously hidden friends to the forefront.
This isn’t much of a life-or-death problem, to be sure, but it’s one that’s a bit frustrating. Last year when a lot of my Facebook friends were constantly posting heated political stuff, I started checking the “I don’t want to see this” and “Unfollow” entries in my feed a lot. All said and done, I “muted” or whatever you want to call it a whole lot of people. In hindsight, I might have been a bit hasty with the cone of silence and now I’d like to liven the old news feed back up again.
The only problem is… I can’t figure out how to do it. I’ve looked in every menu and sub-menu and I can’t find a list of the people I’ve muted. I found a list of people I’ve blocked (which has no entries) so that’s pretty useless. What do I do? Surely there must be a list I can actually look at, right?
There is, in fact, a list. You shouldn’t feel at all bad for not finding this list because it’s hidden in the most ridiculous place that we’re 99 percent sure the average use would never accidentally stumble upon. When logged into your Facebook account on a computer (not a mobile device) navigate to your news feed. Look at the list of entries on the far left menu (that’s where you’ll see things like “News Feed” and “Messages” directly under your profile picture.
If you hover your mouse directly to the left of the “News Feed” link, a tiny gear will appear:
Click on that gear and a little “Edit Settings” box will pop up off it. Click “Edit Settings” and you’ll be taken to the “Edit News Feed Settings” box like so:
There’s the master list of all the people you’ve unfollowed and hidden posts from. You can simply click the “x” beside their name to remove them from the hidden list and then click “save.” An alternate way to achieve the same end (but far more tedious if you need to do it for more than a few people) is to visit the person’s Facebook profile page. There’s a Follow/Unfollow button located in the lower right corner of each person’s cover photo that you can toggle.
Last year in February I published an article on “How to Hide Friends on Facebook”
After all those privacy changes that Facebook made in 2012 and now the new Graph Search, I think it’s time to check Facebook privacy settings. It’s very easy to control almost everything on Facebook: what others can see on your profile, what they can share with you, etc. The access to privacy settings is more user-friendly.
How to hide your Friends (list of all your friends) on Facebook:
- 1. go to your Facebook Profile
2. click on friends tab next to the “about” section
3. click on edit to be able to chance settings. You will see a pop-up box – “Who can see your friends list on your timeline?”
4. select the option you want (visibility): Public/Friends/Only Me/Custom (if you want to hide your friends from others choose “Only Me”)
5. to make sure that your friends can’t see your Friend’s list (they can only see your mutual friends from your Friends’ list) go to Activity Log and select Friends on the right side bar
6. on the top of the page you can see “Who can see your friend list on your timeline?”. Make sure that it is set up the same way as you did in step #4 (Public/Friends/Only Me/Custom). Click on the lock and choose one of the options
That’s it. Make sure to check your Facebook privacy settings from time to time.
In a fit of crankiness, I hid my cousin’s updates from my Facebook newsfeed. Now that I’ve calmed down, I really want to restore her updates so we can stay friends, but I can’t figure out how to unhide her. Help!
First off, it was smart of you to not unfriend them entirely but to “hide” them specifically because you can reverse the action without them ever knowing they were temporarily on your invisible list. Some things are just best for other people not to know!
On the other hand, it’s easy to fall into the trap of having tons of friends but hiding most of them so it acts as if you’ve only got a small circle of friends. Why is that dangerous? Because you can then forget that Mr X and Ms Y are “friends” and are reading every one of your updates, checking out your photos, watching your location check-ins, etc. My daughter has a good strategy in this regard: if she doesn’t want to see someone’s news, she simply isn’t friends with them.
I have previous written about how to hide someone’s newsfeed (status) updates in Facebook but let’s review real quickly by picking on my friend Brett. Here’s an update he had that showed up recently in my Facebook newsfeed:
Dude, I don’t want to see this sort of stuff in my newsfeed! To “hide” his future updates from my Facebook newsfeed, all I have to do is move the cursor to the top right corner of his update, at which point an “X” will appear. Clicking on it reveals a hidden menu:
If you guessed I clicked on “Hide all by Brett” you’d be right. B’bye, Brett.
Now later I realize with a start that Brett’s actually a great guy and I do want to see his status updates in my newsfeed. To reverse my action I need to completely ignore all the “Account” information and settings on the top right and instead click on the black triangle immediately adjacent to “Most Recent”, as you can see here:
The last choice, “Edit Options…”, is what I need to choose, and it brings up a window that contains all the people I’m currently hiding from my newsfeed:
Yup, you can see that I am hiding 285 of my “friends”. I bet I’m not alone in hiding 10-20% of my Facebook pals either, before you say anything too snide about that number! 🙂
To unhide Brett, I’ll need to scroll down to find his name in the list:
Unhiding him from my newsfeed is as easy as clicking on the “x” next to his name. One click, a click on “Save”, and he’s back!
Don’t be surprised, however, if you go back to your Facebook newsfeed and don’t immediately see your friend reappear. It seems that it can’t go back in time and it basically unhides future updates from your previously hidden friend.
The best news? Your cousin will never know what happened…
TIP: Things have changed yet again with Facebook, so you might want to check out this more recent article on How to refollow someone you unfollowed on Facebook. 🙂
Less dramatic than unfriending or blocking Facebook friends, hiding simply removes their status updates from your News Feed.
If you have a Facebook friend who updates his or her status with incredibly uninteresting topics and with too great a frequency, there is a way to remove this person’s posts from your News Feed without the awkwardness associated with unfriending or blocking the person in question. You can hide a friend’s updates, which removes them from your News Feed but keeps them on your friends list. They’ll never know they’ve been hidden. And the process is simple to reverse, should you want to unhide the offending friend and add their updates back to your News Feed.
To hide a Facebook friend (or news source or band or anything you’ve friended or liked that appears on your News Feed), simply click on the small, gray X that appears when you mouse over a status update. You’ll then be able to hide that particular post or, more usefully, hide all posts by that friend.
No offense, Dan; just using you as an example (as far as you know). To hide updates from an offending entity, click on the X that appears when you mouse over a person’s, an app’s, or a page’s update. Matt Elliott/CNET
Hiding someone or something from your News Feed is easy enough–maybe too easy. If you accidentally hid someone or intentionally hid someone but then missed their frequent, boring status updates, it’s easy to unhide that person–if you know where to look.
To unhide a friend, an app, or a page, call up this pop-up window by clicking the Edit Options link at the bottom of your News Feed. Matt Elliott/CNET
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the News Feed page, and click the Edit Options button. In the resulting pop-up window, you can click the gray X to unhide any previously hidden friend, app, or page.
Well, since the last Facebook design change that method has become obsolete, as someone pointed out in the comments.
So, here is the new way to unhide a hidden application or page.
You can still use the Edit Options link at the bottom of the Home or News Stream page to add friends that you have hidden. (But I’m sure you’ve never done that 😉 But this no longer works for Pages and Applications.
After the commentator told me it didn’t work anymore, it took some time for me to figure out how to do it – being as Facebook is SO intuitive.
- Go to Home or News Stream page
- Switch to News Feed if you are using the Live Feed. (Does anyone not use the live feed?)
- Go to Hide something. Remember you have to hover on the right side of an item so the hidden “Hide” button appears. It doesn’t matter who or what you select to hide because you will immediately be able to add it back.
- The area will be yellow and there will be an Undo button and and Edit Options link. Click on the Edit Options link.
- You will get a box with three areas of hidden information: Friends, Pages and Applications. Make sure you unhide whatever it was you hid in order to get this box.
- And remember this won’t work if you are using the Live News Feed. Switch to the regular or boring News Stream.
- Click on “Add to News Feed” for each item you want to see again and click the Close button.
Sometimes using Facebook is like a really hard treasure hunt that has a very disappointing prize.
It’s Time!
Start your WordPress website project now!
Edited by Eman, angeline zuhura, Graeme, Eng and 7 others
Sometimes when you’re browsing your Facebook profile you can accidentally hide a post. Later you want it back in your timeline but you don’t know how to do it. It is really easy to bring back that post. When you’re still in your profile and not going on any page yet. You can still see this “This post is now hidden from your timeline. Undo” you just need to hit the undo button and it will be back in your timeline. But what if you already navigate on some other pages. In this case you will not have an option to undo the hidden post. You just need to follow the instructions below to put back the hidden post in your timeline:
Unhide Instructions
Hide Instructions
Generally, hiding a post from your page will remove it from your face book timeline. People will not be able to see it there. Though if the post you choose to hide had been previously shared, it will still be visible to the people it was shared with. Remember that photos you hide from your timeline are still visible when people visit your Photos view.
Video
Questions and Answers
Where can I find the Facebook ‘activity log’?
I want to clear my search history. Where is the activity log?
To access the Facebook Activity Log, you will need to take the following steps:
What about unhiding a post on a page (as opposed to a profile)?
These instructions are for Facebook profile, but I want to unhide a post I accidentally hid on a page (as opposed to a profile)
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
I hidden a tagged post but it’s not listed in hidden posts?
I want the tagged post back on my timeline. I was tagged last night in a post. I accidentally hidden on my page but it’s not listed in hidden posts. Where will I find it as want it back on my page
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
I’m trying to undo a post that I accidentally hid. Don’t know what I tapped for that to happen. I would like to reverse this since it is an invitation to a baby shower?
I followed directions which said to go to my activity log and to the left of “activity log” there would be a “post. ” to tap. There is no such thing on my Apple phone! How do I proceed from here.
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
There is no unhide option for a specific post on my timeline I am trying to unhide. Can you help?
Hi, I changed my profile photo and when you do that it automatically shows up as a post on my timeline. At first I did not want this, I just simply wanted to change my profile pic, so I hid it from timeline. Now, I’d like to unhide it. I went to Settings & Privacy, then to Activity Log, then to Photo Review, then Hidden fromTimeline. It then shows me the posts that I’ve hidden from timeline, including the one I am trying to unhide, but when I click on it there is NO option to unhide it. This is so frustrating. There is no circle with a line through it, nothing. It tells me it’s hidden, but no option otherwise. How the heck do I unhide this sucker? Thank you, Jeanne Young. I read everything, nothing talks about this and what the solution is. How come Facebook is not showing me the unhide option fora particular activity post?
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
Hello,please how else can I unhide my hidden posts on my timeline?
Hello, please I hide a post that I was tagged in on the 20th of July accidentally today and I went to activity log and I click on hidden from timeline but it showed me no item, I have been trying since and I keep getting same result please how else can I see the hidden post, thank you. When I go to my timeline and click on the activity log, I see the hiden from timeline option and when I click on the option so as to see posts I have hidden from my timeline it keeps telling me no item, but am sure I have hidden some number of posts from my timeline. I want to know how to see the posts I have hidden, so that I can unhide them thank you. I have tried: I have tried unhiding my posts by going to my timeline and I clicked on activity log, then clicked on filter and select categories, then clicked on logged actions and other activities and selected HIDDEN FROM TIMELINE option it then shows me no item. I also tried restarting my phone, updating my Facebook app, logging out and logging in again and I kept on getting the same result. I think it was caused by: I don’t know what might have caused this. The post I hide today was a post made on 20th of July, I don’t know if it has anything to do with my not being able to see the hidden post.
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
I found the “hidden post” how to return it to my timeline?
Went to activity page, found the “hidden post”.. clicked on it and it opened up. there is NO round circle to the right to click on to put it back on my timeline. Neither is a “unhidden button” to push. Upper right hand corner says embed, turn off notifications and save post? now what? I can find a circle on the right of the “hidden post” to click on to make it unhidden. nor is there anything in the upper right hand corner of the post to click to restore it to the timeline
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
I followed the steps to unhide messages but I do not see the circle on the right of the hidden message?
Please help me I need to unhide some messages but I cannot find a way to do it. I follow the direction and go to activity log and to filters but I don’t see the next step which is a circle to the right of the hidden message
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.
Edited by Eman, angeline zuhura, Graeme, Eng and 7 others
Sometimes when you’re browsing your Facebook profile you can accidentally hide a post. Later you want it back in your timeline but you don’t know how to do it. It is really easy to bring back that post. When you’re still in your profile and not going on any page yet. You can still see this “This post is now hidden from your timeline. Undo” you just need to hit the undo button and it will be back in your timeline. But what if you already navigate on some other pages. In this case you will not have an option to undo the hidden post. You just need to follow the instructions below to put back the hidden post in your timeline:
Unhide Instructions
Hide Instructions
Generally, hiding a post from your page will remove it from your face book timeline. People will not be able to see it there. Though if the post you choose to hide had been previously shared, it will still be visible to the people it was shared with. Remember that photos you hide from your timeline are still visible when people visit your Photos view.
Video
Questions and Answers
Where can I find the Facebook ‘activity log’?
I want to clear my search history. Where is the activity log?
To access the Facebook Activity Log, you will need to take the following steps:
What about unhiding a post on a page (as opposed to a profile)?
These instructions are for Facebook profile, but I want to unhide a post I accidentally hid on a page (as opposed to a profile)
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
I hidden a tagged post but it’s not listed in hidden posts?
I want the tagged post back on my timeline. I was tagged last night in a post. I accidentally hidden on my page but it’s not listed in hidden posts. Where will I find it as want it back on my page
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
I’m trying to undo a post that I accidentally hid. Don’t know what I tapped for that to happen. I would like to reverse this since it is an invitation to a baby shower?
I followed directions which said to go to my activity log and to the left of “activity log” there would be a “post. ” to tap. There is no such thing on my Apple phone! How do I proceed from here.
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
There is no unhide option for a specific post on my timeline I am trying to unhide. Can you help?
Hi, I changed my profile photo and when you do that it automatically shows up as a post on my timeline. At first I did not want this, I just simply wanted to change my profile pic, so I hid it from timeline. Now, I’d like to unhide it. I went to Settings & Privacy, then to Activity Log, then to Photo Review, then Hidden fromTimeline. It then shows me the posts that I’ve hidden from timeline, including the one I am trying to unhide, but when I click on it there is NO option to unhide it. This is so frustrating. There is no circle with a line through it, nothing. It tells me it’s hidden, but no option otherwise. How the heck do I unhide this sucker? Thank you, Jeanne Young. I read everything, nothing talks about this and what the solution is. How come Facebook is not showing me the unhide option fora particular activity post?
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
Hello,please how else can I unhide my hidden posts on my timeline?
Hello, please I hide a post that I was tagged in on the 20th of July accidentally today and I went to activity log and I click on hidden from timeline but it showed me no item, I have been trying since and I keep getting same result please how else can I see the hidden post, thank you. When I go to my timeline and click on the activity log, I see the hiden from timeline option and when I click on the option so as to see posts I have hidden from my timeline it keeps telling me no item, but am sure I have hidden some number of posts from my timeline. I want to know how to see the posts I have hidden, so that I can unhide them thank you. I have tried: I have tried unhiding my posts by going to my timeline and I clicked on activity log, then clicked on filter and select categories, then clicked on logged actions and other activities and selected HIDDEN FROM TIMELINE option it then shows me no item. I also tried restarting my phone, updating my Facebook app, logging out and logging in again and I kept on getting the same result. I think it was caused by: I don’t know what might have caused this. The post I hide today was a post made on 20th of July, I don’t know if it has anything to do with my not being able to see the hidden post.
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
I found the “hidden post” how to return it to my timeline?
Went to activity page, found the “hidden post”.. clicked on it and it opened up. there is NO round circle to the right to click on to put it back on my timeline. Neither is a “unhidden button” to push. Upper right hand corner says embed, turn off notifications and save post? now what? I can find a circle on the right of the “hidden post” to click on to make it unhidden. nor is there anything in the upper right hand corner of the post to click to restore it to the timeline
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
I followed the steps to unhide messages but I do not see the circle on the right of the hidden message?
Please help me I need to unhide some messages but I cannot find a way to do it. I follow the direction and go to activity log and to filters but I don’t see the next step which is a circle to the right of the hidden message
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this answer.
If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.
Understand and work with Facebook’s core concepts
- Tweet
- Share
Facebook is the undisputed social media site leader, with more than 2.7 billion users worldwide. Still, there’s a bit of a learning curve when you’re just getting started sharing, posting, liking, and using other Facebook features. Here’s a look at Facebook’s key elements, including your Facebook Profile page, Home page, and News Feed, and how to use them.
Facebook’s Key Features and What They Do
These terms represent Facebook’s core concepts:
Friends
Facebook friends are the people you’ve connected with after you’ve accepted each other’s friend requests. It’s easy to search for friends and people you know using Facebook’s search engine, and Facebook will often suggest potential friends based on your current relationships. After you’ve added friends, they’ll show up in your Friends list.
Facebook Share Box
When you open up Facebook on your home page, you’ll see a text box that says, “What’s on your mind [your name]?” This is called the Share box, and it’s where you’ll type your status update or thoughts and upload photos.
Home Page and News Feed
Your Facebook Home page displays your News Feed. Your News Feed page is where you can see and scroll through anything posted by the people and business Pages you follow. The News Feed is where you arrive when you log in to Facebook; access it anytime by selecting the house-shaped Home icon on the top of the page if you’re using Facebook on the desktop; on the mobile app, you’ll see the Home icon on the bottom menu for iPhone or top for Android.
Profile Page
Your Profile page is where you’ll arrive after selecting your name and image from the top right on the desktop or by selecting Menu > See Your Profile on the Facebook mobile app.
Your Profile page contains your profile picture and a cover photo, biographical information you can add to or edit at any time, and a scrollable list of posts you’ve made or posts in which you’ve been tagged.
The Profile is where you can edit your About information, view your friends and photos, and manage your posts. Facebook has undergone a few redesigns over the years, and this page has been called the “Wall” or the “Timeline” in the past.
Other users may navigate to your Profile page to find out more about you, and you have the option of making your Profile page information available to anyone on Facebook to see or to keep your Profile visible only to your Facebook friends.
How Your News Feed and Profile Page Differ
Your News Feed and Profile page are where you’ll likely spend the most time on Facebook. The News Feed is about your friends and what they’re doing, while your Profile page is about you and the information you’re OK with sharing.
Your News Feed page is a stream of continually updated information from your friends and any Groups or Facebook Pages you follow. What you see is unique to you because it centers around the people and organizations you’re interested in.
News Feed Viewing Options
You have some control over how your News Feed presents posts to you. You can prioritize certain posts, snooze people who may currently be annoying you, unfollow people, and reconnect with people you’ve previously unfollowed.
Here’s how to manage News Feed viewing options:
From Facebook on the Desktop
If you’re using Facebook via a web browser on your computer, you’ll access your account settings to control News Feed viewing options.
From your News Feed page or Profile page, select Account (upside-down triangle) from the top right.
Select Settings & Privacy.
Select News Feed Preferences.
Select Manage Favorites to see posts from certain people higher in your newsfeed; select Unfollow to remove posts from your newsfeed from people or Pages you choose; select Reconnect to see posts from people you previously unfollowed; or select Snooze to take a 30-day break from seeing someone’s posts.
To manage News Feed settings using the Facebook mobile app, select More (three lines), and then go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > News Feed Preferences.
