You can remove a friend from Facebook in seconds, and they won't get a notification
To delete a friend on Facebook, find their profile, click the "Friends" button, and select "Remove Friend" from the menu. The person stays on Facebook — you just stop seeing their posts and they stop seeing yours. Facebook does not send them a message saying you removed them, though they may notice if they look at your profile directly.
The process works the same way on the Facebook website, the mobile app for iPhone or Android, or Facebook Messenger. You can remove one friend at a time, or go through your entire friends list and clean it up in bulk.
Key Takeaways
- Removing a friend takes three taps or clicks and happens instantly with no notification sent to that person.
- The person you remove can still message you, see your public posts, and send you a friend request again later.
- You can remove friends one at a time from their profile or use your friends list to remove multiple people quickly.
- If you want to hide someone's posts without removing them, you can unfollow them instead, which keeps the friendship but stops their content from appearing in your feed.
How to remove a friend from their profile
The fastest way to remove one friend is to go to their profile and use the Friends button. Open Facebook and search for the person's name at the top of the screen, or click on their name if they appear in your recent activity. When their profile opens, look for a button that says "Friends" with a checkmark next to it.
Click or tap the "Friends" button. A small menu will appear with several options. Select "Remove Friend" from that menu. The friendship ends immediately. If you go back to their profile, the button now says "Add Friend" instead of "Friends", which means you are no longer connected.
How to remove multiple friends at once
If you want to clean up your friends list without visiting each person's profile, use the Friends section of your Facebook settings. On the website, click the menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the top right corner, scroll down, and select "Friends". On the mobile app, tap the menu icon at the bottom right, scroll to "Friends", and tap it.
Your friends list will open. You will see a search box at the top and your entire list of friends below it. Hover over or tap any friend's name, and a small menu icon (three dots or a gear) will appear. Click or tap that icon and select "Remove Friend". Repeat this for each person you want to remove. This method is faster than visiting profiles one by one if you are removing several people.
What happens after you remove someone
Once you remove a friend, that person cannot see posts you mark as "Friends Only" — but they can still see anything you post publicly. They can still send you a message in Messenger, though your conversation history remains in your inbox. If they send you a message after you remove them, you will see it as a message request rather than a regular message.
The person can send you a friend request again at any time, and you can accept or decline it like any other request. Removing someone is not permanent — it is just ending the current friendship connection. Facebook does not notify the person that you removed them, so they will only know if they check your profile and notice the "Add Friend" button has returned.
The difference between removing a friend and blocking someone
Removing a friend and blocking are two different actions with different results. When you remove a friend, they can still see your public posts, message you, and send you a friend request. When you block someone, they cannot see your profile at all, cannot message you, and cannot send you a friend request unless you unblock them first.
Use "Remove Friend" when you simply want to stop seeing someone's posts and stop them from seeing your friends-only content. Use "Block" when you want to prevent someone from contacting you or viewing your profile entirely. Blocking is more restrictive and is usually reserved for situations where you do not want any contact with the person.
Unfollowing instead of removing a friend
Facebook also offers an "Unfollow" option that sits between removing a friend and keeping them as normal. When you unfollow someone, you stay friends with them, but their posts stop appearing in your feed. You can still see their profile if you visit it directly, and they can still see your posts.
To unfollow someone, go to their profile, click the "Friends" button, and select "Unfollow" instead of "Remove Friend". This is useful when you want to keep the friendship but do not want to see their daily posts. You can refollow them at any time by clicking the "Following" button on their profile and selecting "Follow".
Frequently Asked Questions
Will the person know I removed them?
Facebook does not send a notification when you remove someone. They will only know if they visit your profile and see the "Add Friend" button instead of "Friends", or if they notice your posts have stopped appearing in their feed. Most people do not check this regularly.
Can I remove someone and then add them back later?
Yes. After you remove a friend, they can send you a new friend request, or you can search for their profile and send them a request. There is no waiting period or penalty for removing and re-adding someone.
What if I remove someone by mistake?
Facebook does not have an "undo" button for removing friends. You will need to search for their profile and send them a new friend request, or wait for them to send you one. They will see it as a regular friend request with no indication that you previously removed them.
Can someone I removed still message me?
Yes. After you remove a friend, they can still send you messages in Messenger. Their messages will appear in your message requests folder rather than your main inbox, and you can choose to accept or ignore them.
Does removing a friend delete our old messages?
No. Your message history with that person stays in your inbox even after you remove them as a friend. You can still read old conversations, but you will not see their new messages in your main inbox — they will go to your message requests instead.