Facebook gives you several privacy controls for managing who can see your profile, posts, photos, and connections. To hide your friends list on Facebook, you can change its audience so that only you can view the full list.
You can also make your friends list private on Facebook from the app on an Android phone or iPhone, or from a web browser on a computer. Keep in mind that some mutual friends may still appear in other parts of the platform.
How to Hide Your Facebook Friends List on Mobile
You can change who sees your friends list from the privacy settings in the Facebook app. The steps are nearly the same on Android and iPhone, although the name or location of some options may vary slightly depending on your app version.
- Open the Facebook app and tap the three-line Menu icon.
- Scroll down, select Settings & privacy, and then tap Settings.
- Find the Audience and visibility section and select How people find and contact you.
Some versions of the app may display Public and visibility instead of Audience and visibility.
- Tap Who can see your friends list?, select Only me, and then tap Save.
After you select Only me, other people will no longer be able to view your full friends list from your profile.
You can also select Friends if you want only people you have added to be able to see it. Depending on your version of Facebook, you may also see additional options for customizing the audience.
How to Make Your Facebook Friends List Private on a Computer
You can also change who can see your friends list from the Facebook website. The setting is saved to your account, so you only need to update it once.
- Open Facebook in your web browser and click your profile picture in the upper-right corner.
- Select Settings & privacy, and then click Settings.
- Find Audience and visibility and select How people find and contact you.
- Click Who can see your friends list? and choose Only me from the pop-up menu.
The change also applies when you use Facebook on your phone, so you do not need to repeat these steps on every device.
Note: Selecting Only me prevents other people from viewing your full friends list from your profile. However, some shared connections may still appear elsewhere on Facebook, depending on your friends’ privacy settings. Facebook provides more information about friends-list visibility in its Help Center.
Can You Hide Mutual Friends on Facebook?
Even after hiding your friends list, Facebook may still show shared connections on other people’s profiles. A friendship may also remain visible if one of your friends allows others to see their own list.
This happens because each user controls the privacy of their own friends list. For example, if a friend’s list is public, other people may still be able to see that you are connected through that profile. Mutual friends may also appear in friend suggestions, search results, or other areas of Facebook.
Can You Hide One Friend on Facebook?
Facebook does not let you hide one specific friend while keeping the rest of your friends list visible. The friends-list setting controls who can see the list as a whole. It does not offer separate privacy controls for individual friendships.
A custom audience option, when available, may let you hide the entire list from specific people. However, mutual friends and other signs of the connection may still appear elsewhere on Facebook.
To stop seeing someone’s posts without removing them, you can unfollow that person. Blocking is the more restrictive option when you want to prevent someone from viewing your profile or contacting you. You can also check how to see the people you’ve blocked on Facebook.
Conclusion
To hide your friends list on Facebook, open Audience and visibility, select How people find and contact you, open Who can see your friends list?, and choose Only me.
You can make this change from an Android phone, iPhone, or computer. Other people will no longer be able to view your full friends list from your profile, although some mutual friends may still appear elsewhere on Facebook.
You may also want to review your sent friend requests on Facebook.
