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How To Hide Last Seen Online Time Facebook

How To Hide Last Seen Online Time Facebook
Hide Your Last Seen Online Time on Facebook!

Facebook and privacy concerns go hand-in-hand these days. Although people have had some idea about their private information being recorded and shared for advertising purposes ever since Facebook was first launched, the newest revelations about the company’s true business plan have been more than scary for numerous users.

Now it’s no secret that targeted advertising is the name of the game. Everything from personal conversations, page likes, and even Google searches is used to steer you towards certain products you might be inclined to buy.

Still, given all the public outrage about how Facebook works, very few changes have been made. Users still have very little control when it comes to privacy settings. The same can be said of simpler features like being away, checking in, or limiting what your friends may learn about your activities.

Hiding Activity Log

Most users want to know how to hide the last active time on Facebook Messenger. To do this, there are a few very simple steps to follow.

Desktop

As we update this article, Facebook is in the middle of a massive upgrade and redesign for their desktop site, slowly rolling out to users over the next several weeks. Depending on your version of Facebook, turning off Active Status in Messenger may vary depending on whether or not you’ve received the new version of Facebook yet.

For those on the old version of Facebook Messenger, look for the settings icon in the bottom right corner, then click on it and select Turn Off Active Status. Facebook will give you the option to control how your active status turns off, so you can choose to either turn it off for specific people or just turn it off altogether.

The new version of Facebook uses the same menu, but getting there is a bit different. Look for the triple-dotted menu icon in the top-right corner, then select Turn Off Active Status. Select the option you want, then click OK. However, you aren’t done yet. If you use Facebook on other platforms, like your phone, you’ll need to turn it off there as well.

Mobile

If you also use Facebook Messenger on your phone, you’ll need to head into the Messenger app to turn off active status there as well. Thankfully, after the latest redesign of Messenger, it’s super easy. Open the app, then look for your profile icon in the upper-left corner of the screen. Click your icon, then look for “Active Status” below the option for dark mode. Tap this option, then slide the toggle to off. Unlike on desktop, you won’t get the option to control how your active status works; it’s purely an on or off setting. Slide it to off and you’re good to go. Remember to repeat the process for any device you have Messenger installed on.

The only downside to doing this is that you may also be preventing yourself from checking the ‘last active’ status of your offline friends.

The ‘Last Seen One Minute Ago’ Bug

There are some users who report that hiding your activity doesn’t exactly work as advertised. For some users, even after toggling off the green button, a ‘last active’ timestamp still remains. However, instead of showing the exact time, it will always display ‘one minute’ as the last timestamp of your online activity.

Messaging apps are not perfect and Facebook Messenger is no exception. Although the tech giant pours plenty of resources into their software coding, clearly there are plenty of bugs, some of which affect more users than others.

Is Hiding Your Activity Worth It?

How much does doing this really help you, and is hiding the ‘last seen’ activity really that important? In the grand scheme of things, the answer is no. This is just a minor perk you can use to your advantage when you’re trying to avoid certain people – exes, coworkers, neighbors, old high school classmates, etc.

You can make sure that they can’t stalk you and track your activities if you decide to hide your availability. However, you’ll still receive messages from people you haven’t blocked or banned. This means that at the end of the day, if someone’s trying to get on your nerves, hiding your ‘last seen’ timestamp does little to stop them.

The more important question to ask would be why Facebook doesn’t make more similar features available and make the existing ones more reliable. Data collection aside, being able to hide your activity from your friends and frenemies should be a no-brainer.

However, Facebook has a lot of catching up to do in terms of both tech support and providing users with more control over their privacy settings. For the time being, there’s very little you can do that has true significance on your overall browsing or messaging experience.

Final Thought

It is interesting to note that Facebook messaging didn’t always work like this. Back in the day, the ‘last seen’ timestamp was not available. Even after the separation of the Facebook Messenger app and its release as an independent app, the last online timestamp was not implemented.

While browser users still had to deal with it, Facebook Messenger users did not. Then, all of a sudden, people started seeing the last time their friends were online. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, but as more and more concerns about privacy policies were made public, this activity feature also got plenty of blame.

Not so much for what information it displayed, but mostly because it showed once again that Facebook developers seem to care very little about what users say and what they ask for. New features and policies may be implemented overnight with none the wiser. No one asks for approvals, everything just changes, and the users are left to roll with the times.

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One thought on “How To Hide Last Seen Online Time Facebook”

James Wilkinson says:
Ditch the “last seen” time stamp feature. It causes more harm than good.. or at least make it an optional setting.

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Apr 27, 2020

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