Maybe you want to keep someone on your Facebook friends list without making that connection obvious to everyone who visits your profile. However, Facebook does not let you completely hide one specific friendship while keeping the rest of your friends list visible.
This may involve a coworker, relative, former partner, or anyone you would rather keep more private. To hide a friend on Facebook from other people, the closest option is to make your entire friends list private or limit who can see it. Facebook does not provide a setting for hiding only one friendship.
This guide explains the available alternatives, including limiting what that person can see, hiding individual posts from them, or reducing their content in your Feed without unfriending them.
Can You Hide One Friend on Facebook?
Facebook’s friends-list privacy setting applies to the list as a whole, not to individual friendships. Even after making the full list private, mutual friends and other signs of the connection may still appear elsewhere on the platform.
The best alternative depends on which part of the relationship you want to make less visible or easier to manage:
| What you want to do | Facebook option |
|---|---|
| Hide your full friends list from other people | Friends-list privacy settings |
| Limit what the person can see from your profile | Restricted list |
| Hide specific posts from that person | Friends except |
| Stop seeing the person’s posts | Unfollow |
| Hide their posts temporarily | Snooze |
| Prevent most contact and profile access | Block |
These options do not hide one friendship from everyone else. Instead, they let you control who sees your friends list, what the person can view, and how much of their content appears in your Feed.
Unfollow a Friend Without Unfriending Them
Unfollowing is useful when you want to remain friends without seeing that person’s posts in your Feed.
The person stays on your friends list, and Facebook does not notify them when you unfollow them.
From the Facebook App
- Open the profile of the person you want to unfollow.
- Tap Friends or Following, depending on what appears in your app.
- Select Unfollow.
From a Computer
- Open the person’s Facebook profile.
- Click Friends.
- Select Unfollow.
Their posts should stop appearing in your Feed, although you can still visit their profile and view any content available to you. You can also follow the person again later.
Temporarily Hide Someone’s Posts With Snooze
When you only need a temporary break, use Snooze instead of unfollowing the person.
Snooze removes posts from a person, Page, or group from your Feed for 30 days. After that period, Facebook automatically starts showing their content again.
To snooze someone:
- Find one of their posts in your Feed.
- Tap or click the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner of the post.
- Select Snooze [name] for 30 days.
How to Add Someone to the Restricted List on Facebook
The Restricted list lets you remain Facebook friends with someone while preventing them from seeing most posts shared only with Friends.
A restricted friend can usually see:
- Posts and information you share publicly.
- Posts where you tag them.
- Other public content they already have access to.
They normally cannot see Friends-only posts unless you tag them or specifically include them in the audience.
Add Someone to the Restricted List
- Open the person’s Facebook profile.
- Select Friends.
- Choose Edit Friend List.
- Select Restricted.
Facebook does not notify the person when you add them to the Restricted list.
To manage everyone on the list from a computer, open Friends, select Custom Lists, and then choose Restricted. From there, you can add or remove people.
Hide a Facebook Post From One Friend
You do not need to add someone to the Restricted list if you only want to hide a single post from them.
Before publishing:
- Create your post as usual.
- Tap or click the audience selector below your name.
- Select Friends except or Don’t show to…, depending on your version of Facebook.
- Choose the person you want to exclude.
- Save the audience and publish the post.
The Friends except option shares the post with your friends while hiding it from the people you select. Facebook may also show Specific friends, which works the other way around by sharing the post only with selected people.
This audience usually applies only to that post. Check the setting again before publishing something else, because Facebook may return to your default audience.
Should You Unfollow, Restrict, Unfriend, or Block Them?
These options affect the connection in different ways:
| Option | Remain friends? | Their posts in your Feed | See your Friends-only posts? | Contact you on Facebook? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unfollow | Yes | Usually hidden | Yes | Yes |
| Snooze | Yes | Hidden for 30 days | Yes | Yes |
| Restricted | Yes | Usually unchanged | Usually no | Yes |
| Friends except | Yes | Unchanged | Not the excluded post | Yes |
| Unfriend | No | Possibly public posts | No | Usually yes |
| Block | No | No | No | No |
Use Unfollow when you mainly want to stop seeing the person’s posts in your Feed. Choose Restricted when you want to remain friends while limiting access to posts shared only with Friends. Use Friends except when you only need to hide individual posts.
Unfriend removes the connection but may still allow the person to view public content or contact you, depending on your settings.
Block is the most restrictive option: a blocked profile generally cannot see your posts, tag you, send you messages, invite you to events or groups, or add you as a friend. You can also check how to see the people you’ve blocked on Facebook.
Conclusion
Facebook does not offer a single setting that completely hides one friendship across the platform.
Depending on your goal, you can unfollow or snooze someone, add them to the Restricted list, or hide individual posts from them with Friends except.
These options give you more control over the connection without immediately unfriending or blocking the person.
