How to Turn Off Active Status On Facebook?

Facebook has afforded us a lot of conveniences that we are thankful for. Facebook has been our source of the daily goings-on in the world. Our feed always contains the latest news – verified or not, the funniest memes, our friends’ latest shenanigans, and the most entertaining nonsense the internet has to offer. Facebook has also mostly replaced texting with its free messenger app.

All these conveniences are such a blast to have at our fingertips, but they also come at a price. –Every time we use and enjoy these conveniences, our active status on Facebook will be there for the world to see. And as long as other people can see that we are active, people will reach out to us whether we like them to, or not.

Normal people need their alone time once in a while. Recluse people want their lair to themselves and themselves alone. Whichever of these you are; you will have reasons to sometimes or always turn off your active status on Facebook, and that is okay.

Learn how to turn off active status on Facebook and relish not being available to the world when you deserve not to be.

Facebook Does Not Reflect Real Life

Just because our online status on Facebook says we are available does not mean we are available for other people. We have different levels of how private we want our life to be and our Facebook status has nothing to do with it.

Maybe it is time to learn how to hide your active status and only be available whenever you are as to not give a false picture of how readily accessible you are to other people.

Facebook Messenger Status and Facebook App Status are Two Different Things!

It has probably happened to you a couple of times; you swear you have turned off your active status on messenger, yet somehow people still know you are online! 

This may come as a shock to a lot of people, but to turn off active status on your Facebook Messenger app does not make you completely inactive on Facebook. There is a separate active status setting for the Facebook app itself that you have to turn off for you to be completely invisible on your Facebook account.  Only by turning off your active status on both Facebook and Facebook Messenger will you get your much desired inactive status.

If people still bug you despite doing both of these deactivations, try to block someone on Facebook as a last resort. Kidding! Maybe.

A step-by-Step Guide on How to Turn off Your active Status on Facebook

Now that we know that there are two active statuses, we need to deactivate to be invisible on Facebook, here is a guide on how to do just that.

A. Disable Your Active Status on the Facebook App

1.  Open the Facebook app on your phone and tap on the menu icon (3 horizontal lines)

2.  You will go to a page with a host of options.

3.  Scroll down to the very end and choose and tap ‘Settings & Privacy.’

4.  Another menu will appear. Choose and tap ‘Active Status.’

5.  There will be a toggle switch that says ‘Show when you’re active.’

6.  Turn this toggle switch off.

7.  A prompt window will pop up prompting you that you will not be able to see when your friends are active or recently active.

8.  Choose and Tap ‘Turn off.’ You are now inactive on the Facebook App.

B.  Disable your Active Status on the Facebook Messenger App 

1.  Open your Facebook Messenger app and tap on your profile picture to the upper left to bring you to the options menu.

2.  Locate and tap ‘Active Status’ settings.

3.  This brings you to toggle switch; ‘Show when you’re active.’

4.  Turn off this toggle and you are now inactive on the Facebook Messenger app.

Turning Off Your Active Status Maybe Healthy for Facebook Page Administrators

If you are an admin of a Facebook Page, your followers may demand replies to their comments and messages immediately whenever they see that you are active. Deactivate your status whenever you will not be able to reply to them. This way you can maintain and grow your Facebook following by using a healthy schedule of when you are active and available to reply on your Facebook page.

Balance is Still Key

The entirety of social media is overwhelming and just too much to take in every day. – There’s Facebook for a little bit of everything, Instagram for things and people you closely follow, TikTok for fun, YouTube for entertainment, Pinterest, Linked-In, Twitter… Every app installed on your device somehow takes away time from what matters. Everyone deserves a time out from social media to give themselves those moments alone doing things they truly need to do!

A healthy piece of advice though; limit your ‘invisible time’ on Facebook as to not always seem unreachable to your friends and family. Be available when you are. You never know who among the people you care about needs your attention.