Noteworthy

Are your Facebook friends hiding from you?

Turns out the latest update to the Facebook news feeds sets a bunch of feeds that you may want to follow to “hidden” so that they don’t show up in your main feed. This includes both “friends” and “public profiles”, so it’s probably worth checking to see if you have some things hidden that I did not mean to!

How to check?

This is not self-evident, at least it wasn’t for me. The trick is that you first have to hide a news item, and then Facebook will (briefly) give you a link to edit your hidden items (i.e. “show hidden friends”):
hidden-menu

This will open up a menu similar to this one where you can unhide (or “add to newsfeed”):

pages-newsfeed

Personally, I was not only surprised at the number of “pages” or public profiles that were hidden, but also at just how many people were hidden in my menu. I think the old messaging of “show fewer updates” turned into “hidden” in the new layout.

And if you’re looking for more background on Facebook, maybe you should ask yourself, Why bother with Facebook Pages?

facebook marketing

Related posts:

  1. Facebook Takes Another Step Toward Merging Functionality of Pages and Profiles
  2. After setting up a Facebook page for 4RealzEd and…
  3. Why bother with Facebook Pages?

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40 responses

  1. Laura Avatar
    Laura

    I figured out how to “Show Hidden Friends” (and I feel like a bit of an idiot that it took me this long): at the bottom of the news feed, in the box that you click for “Older Posts” there is a link that says “See Hidden Friends” – and ALLEGEDLY this offers the option to “Add to News Feed”; however, these links seem to be non-functioning at present.
    So my Hidden Friends are doomed to remain Hidden until this is resolved.

    Reply
    1. Molly Duffy Avatar
      Molly Duffy

      Hey Kids, I think my friend may have hid me. Is there any way I can tell if she hid me? let me know if anyone has anything?

      Reply
      1. John Avatar
        John

        I think they’re hidden you if you don’t pop up in their friends list on their home page, that is, the sidebar that appears on their profile that has a list of ten friends or so. I think Facebook’s code lists the people you interact with the most, so if you’re hidden from their news feed, then you won’t show up on their friends list. I hope that helped.

        Reply
        1. leeanne Avatar
          leeanne

          how can i tell if my other half has hidden certain friends he doesnt want me to know about?

          Reply
          1. Dustin Avatar
            Dustin

            Pretty sure there’s no way to “hide” selective people on your friend list from your existing “friends”…

        2. rick galang Avatar
          rick galang

          Your explanation is incorrect. If you don’t show up on your friend’s list, it is because they have either de-friended you, blocked you, or they have deactivated their account. Hiding a friend’s posts from your news feed does not remove them from your friends list, it only hides their posts on your news feed which you can restore anytime you want as long as they have not de-friended you in the meantime.

          Reply
    2. leanne Avatar
      leanne

      I wanted to know if my fiance was hiding friends from me,as hes always on f/b and ive got mutual friends with him and he hasnt spoke to any of them no comments,anything,just thought maybe with his track record of cheating he may of hidden a few women from me,also want to no if he can hide me from them,and also our relationship status.

      Reply
      1. Common Sense Avatar
        Common Sense

        Sounds like a great person to get married to, considering the history of cheating and the fact that you have major trust issues. Be prepared for divorce, that is if you ever make it down the isle.

        Reply
  2. Whitney Avatar
    Whitney

    Hopefully Laura reads this again. In order to get my friends off their hidden status (I noticed that the links are completely gone now) I had to hide someone and then click the “Show Hidden Friends” that popped up in the window… as shown in this article. It’s the only way you can change the list right now.

    Sooo frustrating.

    Reply
  3. Mark Green Avatar
    Mark Green

    Has anyone figured out how to hide/unhide friends out of the Facebook BlackBerry App? I’m forced to unfriend folks that annoy me with updates, but I’d rather just hide them!

    Reply
  4. Dustin Avatar
    Dustin

    I’m wondering how you’ve managed to use the Blackberry app at all. I think I *might* be stuck with an old version because I find it unusable for anything other than uploading photos. Status updates for example still force me to start with “dustin (is)…”

    Reply
  5. Dany Avatar
    Dany

    Hey ,can anyone tell if his friends are hiding his news feeds?

    Reply
  6. Dustin Avatar
    Dustin

    Interesting twist Dany…. I’m pretty sure there’s no way to tell.

    Reply
  7. Kamran Avatar
    Kamran

    Thank you very much. it works. lol

    Reply
  8. VJ-ATL Avatar
    VJ-ATL

    Well, its pretty simple to unhide your friends. I finally figured it out. Go to the end of the news feed page. At the bottom right corner, you will see “options” menu which will pop up a screen showing all the feeds or friends that are hidden from your news feed. You may then select to “Add to news feed” button to add them back so that you can see their posts.

    Reply
  9. sjunkie Avatar
    sjunkie

    damn.. i’m also looking for the option to hide a few (i’m lying a LOT) of overzealous updaters on my blackberry. I love em but damn it! its too much! stop with the updating!!! When will they fix this??!

    Reply
  10. kbryce Avatar
    kbryce

    I what to unhide the Farmville links on my facebook! Any ideas?? I hide it when I didn’t have time to have a farm but now have one and need to adopt 2 animals to get a ribbon but I need to do this through the entries! PLEASE HELP!

    Reply
    1. Dustin Avatar
      Dustin

      I have no idea about Farmville. I’ve managed to successfully avoid that game! 😉

      Reply
    2. Pat Avatar
      Pat

      I accidentally hid farmville feed & i want it back if you get answer please tell me! Thank you ever so much

      Reply
      1. Glenn Avatar
        Glenn

        At the bottom of your newsfeed to the right is a button marked “Options.” Clicking on that will bring up a window that shows all hidden Friends, pages, and apps. Simply remove Farmville from the list and you should have it back.

        Reply
  11. Jamey Avatar
    Jamey

    I’m with Dany… I’d like to know if I’m being hidden… There has to be a patch for that. Hackers, how about a hand?

    Reply
  12. Joel Avatar
    Joel

    I’d like to know if there is any way do discover if any of my friends are hiding me.

    Reply
    1. Paul Avatar
      Paul

      Yes Joel..i’d like to know the answer to that as well…..can i find out if one of my friends is hiding from me on facebook

      Reply
  13. Michele Scheideman Avatar
    Michele Scheideman

    I am no longer able to see my neighbor’s farmville posts either. HELP!

    Reply
  14. Madeeha Avatar
    Madeeha

    Hi.. m v worried tht my bf iz cheating on me haz been avoiding me & he haz smehow managed 2 appear offline 2 me on fb chat while he still remainz online 4 da rest of his friendz.. plz plz plz help me out n tel me if thr iz sme way tht i can find out if he iz appearing offline 2 me only….

    Reply
    1. Dustin Avatar
      Dustin

      Madeeha, If there’s a way to hide your status to only one person, I wouldn’t no how to do that. Sorry I’m not gonna be much help.

      Reply
      1. Erin Avatar
        Erin

        This post is pretty old but I just read it. There was a way to do this before fb changed the chat recently. I my facebook friends organized into lists for my family, coworkers, etc. In the old chat I was able to turn each list on and off so I was only shown as online to certain lists. You can put only one person on a list and turn their list off on your chat.

        Since fb changed the chat recently I can’t see my lists anymore so I just stay offline all the time. lol

        Reply
  15. Madeeha Avatar
    Madeeha

    Thankyou Dustin 4 ur trying 2 help… but m pretty sure tht u can create certain friend lists n appear offline 2 thm only while appearing online 2 the rest of the frndz… PLz GUYZ N GALZ…. NEED HELP HERE!!! m sure thr must sme way of finding out… msn yahoo n gtawk all hv been covered m sure thr must b a hacker whu haz found out 4 fb also……… DESPERATELY HELP NEEDED!!!!!!

    Reply
  16. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    My son travels with his job and used to mention his whereabouts on facebook almost daily . Also another son would post and 2 daughter-in-laws.. No I feel like it’s all hidden from me. Nothing new has shown up in weeks. Is there a way to view those hidden files w/o contacted them?

    Reply
    1. Dustin Avatar
      Dustin

      As far as I know, if someone hides stuff from you, there’s really no way to see it as long as you’re logged in as yourself.

      Reply
      1. Erin Avatar
        Erin

        This post is pretty old but I just read it. There was a way to do this before fb changed the chat. I have my facebook friends organized into lists for my family, coworkers, etc. In the old chat I was able to turn each list on and off so I was only shown as online to certain lists. You can put only one person on a list and turn their list off on your chat.

        Since fb changed the chat recently I can’t see my lists anymore so I just stay offline all the time. lol

        Reply
        1. Erin Avatar
          Erin

          oops sorry disregard… this was supposed to reply to the post above yours… lol

          Reply
  17. Jonathan Garcia Avatar
    Jonathan Garcia

    aughh im bored at skool

    Reply
  18. ahc Avatar
    ahc

    Not working its mozilla and updated facebook

    Reply
  19. Robin Thomas Avatar
    Robin Thomas

    This no longer works..

    Reply
  20. Fred Homes Avatar
    Fred Homes

    I am an old user of face book and I don’t even know that there such things like hiding someone from your news feed. Thanks and I found this site. And now I can hide those super noisy friends of mine. And same for those friends who always publish their face book games.

    Hidden from newsfeed sounds like a good idea but if you really want to keep someone from your wall and eliminate them from your news feed, and then you really are not friends with them. Looks like so unfair for your face book friend’s side!

    Reply
  21. gemma Avatar
    gemma

    Hi is there a way that a friend is hiding friends posts/replies on her wall?

    she’s either suddenly very unpopular or she’s deliberately hiding their responses from me?
    I can see the friends on her friend list so she’s not put them in a seperate hiden group but no-one ever replies to her posts.

    we recently split up and i think she’s hiding what she’s up to and who she’s in touch with from me

    please help!

    Reply
  22. suzy Avatar
    suzy

    along these same lines, I’m wondering why I can’t see 1 of my BF’s Friends on his page anymore and his Friend count dropped by 1 (she is not one of my Friends) – but when I search for her, the search that comes up says we have 1 Mutual Friend (which would be my BF). When I look on his FB account at her page, there is more information there (like it would be there for her Friends) than I see when I look at her page through my FB account.

    Sooooo, did he unfriend her? Is she hidden or something? Can you hide ONE friend? Unsubscribing doesn’t remove someone from your list…. I’m puzzled!

    TIA,

    Reply
  23. Worried Jack Avatar
    Worried Jack

    Same problem as Suzy… my potential girlfriend (online, overseas, not met yet) is mutual friends.. how do I put it?… one guy is mutual friends (he’s not my friend; 3 of his friends are also mine) with 3 of my friends. I know he is her friend (through posts). Only 2 of my friends show up on that mutual list. I can see when she is mutual friends of others, but not always.

    Also, she liked a pic of another guy. Now it says ‘6 people like this’… I can only see 5, not her. This occurs here and there.. sometimes I can see her likes, sometimes not. It points to selectively hiding things, surely?

    I could be wrong, but I feel she is being cagey with me. Or is it the guys hiding stuff?

    Reply
  24. Mr unclear Avatar
    Mr unclear

    Ok when i look at my facebook on my iphone and look at my GF friend list it shows she is displaying 50 of 52 friends… Why? there is one person on her FB i had concerns about but now i cant see this person on her facebook as a friend of hers but she still shows as liking certain posts??? is it possible she has blocked me.. (just a note the person i have concerns over im not there freind)

    Can anybody clear this up pleaseee

    Reply

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