Facebook allows you to connect with friends, family, and acquaintances from around the world. Over time, you may accumulate Facebook friends that you no longer interact with on a regular basis. Removing inactive friends can help declutter your Friends list and focus on the connections you engage with regularly.
What are inactive friends on Facebook?
Inactive friends on Facebook refer to the connections in your Friends list that you rarely or never interact with. This could include:
- Old classmates or colleagues you haven’t spoken to in years
- Distant relatives or vague acquaintances you accepted friend requests from
- Friends of friends you don’t actually know yourself
- Pages or groups you liked once but no longer follow
These inactive connections tend to build up over time as your social circles change. You likely don’t post on their Timelines or comment on their updates often, if at all. The interactions are one-sided or non-existent.
Should you remove inactive Facebook friends?
It’s up to you whether to remove inactive friends on Facebook. Here are some pros and cons to consider:
Pros of removing inactive friends:
- Declutter your Friends list so it only shows active connections
- Avoid irrelevant posts from people you don’t engage with
- Protect privacy if you post Stories or sensitive updates
- Cut down on notifications and distractions
Cons of removing inactive friends:
- You’ll lose connections in case you ever want to reconnect
- It can be time-consuming to evaluate all your friends
- You may accidentally remove friends you want to keep
- Some friends are inactive just temporarily, not permanently
Ultimately it’s a personal choice. Removing extremely inactive friends you have no real ties to anymore can be beneficial. But you don’t have to delete every connection that isn’t actively engaging with you daily.
Can you filter or organize friends by activity?
Unfortunately Facebook does not have a built-in tool to filter or organize friends based on their activity level. You cannot sort your Friends list from most active to least active.
Some third party apps and browser extensions claim to evaluate friend activity, but this is against Facebook’s privacy policies. Automated tools are not permitted to access your Friends list and activity data to categorize friends.
The only official way to view friend activity is manually. You can visit each friend’s profile and broadly assess if they seem actively posting and interacting or inactive based on recent activity visible on their Timeline.
How to remove inactive Facebook friends
Since Facebook does not allow organizing friends by activity level, you will need to manually evaluate connections and remove inactive friends. Here are some tips:
1. Review your Friends list
Go through your full Friends list and look for people you have not interacted with in a very long time. The easiest place to start is connections you don’t recognize at all – usually Friend of Friend additions. If you see no sign of recent posting or engagement, they can likely be removed.
2. Check recent post reactions
Visit your own profile and view posts you’ve shared recently. Scan the list of people who have liked or commented on them. Make note of friends who never engage with your content anymore and consider removing them.
3. Assess recent conversations
Open your Facebook Messenger app and look at recent conversations. If there are friends you haven’t directly messaged in years, they are likely good inactive candidates to remove.
4. Follow the 1-2 rule
For borderline inactive friends, use the 1-2 rule. If you have not interacted on their Timeline in over 1 year and they have not interacted on yours in over 2 years, it’s safe to remove them.
5. Remove in batches
Removing inactive friends one by one can be tedious. Try selecting 10-20 at a time to delete in batches until you declutter your Friends list.
How to hide your updates from inactive friends
If you don’t necessarily want to delete some connections, you can simply hide your posts from inactive friends you rarely engage with. Here’s how to target your updates:
Post to close friends
When sharing a post, use the Close Friends list feature. Add only your closest active friends to this list. Casual inactive friends will not see updates sent exclusively to Close Friends.
Create friend lists
You can manually organize friends into lists like Close Friends, Acquaintances, Family, etc. When posting, choose to share only to certain chosen lists that do not include inactive friends you want to hide updates from.
Block specific friends from posts
If there are just a few inactive friends you want to hide posts from, you can block them before sharing. Click the three dots next to their name and select Block [Name] to prevent them seeing future posts.
What happens when you remove Facebook friends?
Here’s what happens when you delete someone as a friend on Facebook:
- They are removed from your Friends list immediately
- You disappear from their Friends list as well
- You can no longer see their full profile or timeline posts
- Any of their posts you previously liked or commented on remain visible
- You can no longer message them directly or tag them
- Mutual friends and groups are not affected
Essentially all direct interaction vanishes. Indirect connections through groups and mutual friends stay intact. If you ever want to reconnect, you can send a new friend request.
Other ways to clean up your Facebook friends
Along with removing inactive friends, here are some other clean up tips:
Unfollow friends temporarily
If you don’t want to fully delete a connection, you can simply unfollow them. This keeps the friendship intact but hides their posts from your News Feed.
Leave unused groups
Evaluate what groups you’ve joined over the years and leave ones you no longer engage with. This also helps tidy your News Feed.
Unlike stale pages
Browse the Pages you’ve liked and unlike ones you don’t care about anymore. This prevents irrelevant updates from cluttering your feed.
Adjust News Feed preferences
Use the News Feed preferences to see more updates from close friends and less from acquaintances or groups.
Leave memories from old friends
Even if you delete a friend, consider leaving old posts and memories you both shared. Part of Facebook’s purpose is preserving connections.
Conclusion
Filtering friends by activity level is not directly possible on Facebook. To remove inactive friends, you will need to manually evaluate your connections and delete friends one by one.
The process can be time consuming but is worthwhile to declutter your Facebook experience. Focus on cutting connections you have not interacted with in years, rather than temporarily inactive friends. Be mindful before deleting and use lists or unfollow if you prefer hiding over removing.
With a trimmed Friends list of active connections, you can have more relevant, engaging interactions on Facebook moving forward.