How do idle on facebook

When you open Facebook chat, it's easy to see that not every contact is online, meaning that you can't instantly chat with them.

Idle or offline contacts may not respond to messages right away. Facebook chat, accessible from the lower right sidebar, connects you to your friends in real time. It also has video chat functionality. You can choose which friends see you as online, block any contact or log out and receive any sent messages in your Messages inbox. Facebook removed the idle symbol in Facebook chat, so you won't be shown as idle when you aren't in the Facebook window.

Facebook used to display a blue half-moon symbol to let users know that a person on the contact list was logged into chat but away from Facebook. Or you can click on the Messenger icon and instead select See all in Messenger to jump to the main Messenger interface. Then click on the three dots in the upper left and choose Preferences from the menu. Whichever approach you use, Facebook will provide you with some extra options to allow you to further customize your invisibility.

Using these options wisely will let you appear offline to some users for example, employers while still showing as online to specific friends or family members. There are two versions of Facebook in the Windows Store; a basic Facebook app and a Messenger-specific app.

If you use the main Facebook app, you can only appear invisible using the method described above. If you only use the Messenger app without Facebook , click on your profile photo in the upper right-hand corner, then select Preferences and head to the Active Status tab in the panel on the left-hand side of the screen.

Slide the toggle to change the setting. It's worth noting that both apps have poor reviews; we do not recommend them as the best way to access Facebook on your computer. Although the Android and iOS Messenger apps still have some very minor design differences, the functionality of the two apps is almost identical. As soon as a friend becomes available again, a green circle appears next to her name. If the symbol disappears altogether, she has gone offline in chat.

While an idle Facebook friend is not actively on the site, because she is still online, your messages will pop up on his computer screen. If he returns to the site before closing his browser, he will see your message and may reply so long as you are still online as well.

Lara Webster has been writing professionally since What Are "Idle" Friends on Facebook? Improve this question. Peter Mortensen 1, 3 3 gold badges 20 20 silver badges 30 30 bronze badges. Bakhtiyor Bakhtiyor 1 1 gold badge 3 3 silver badges 14 14 bronze badges. This and a "busy" status would be useful. Does anyone actually work on Facebook?

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. The best way is to go offline but for specific people using friend lists. And here is an engineer from explaining why this is difficult The most resource-intensive operation performed in a chat system is not sending messages. Improve this answer. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook.