With social media being such a big part of most people’s lives these days, managing your friends lists can be an important but tricky thing. One question that often comes up is whether the person you unfriend gets notified that you unfollowed or unfriended them. The answer depends on the platform.
On Facebook, when you unfriend someone, they do not get notified directly. However, there are some ways that they might be able to figure it out:
- Their friend count will go down by 1, so if they notice this, they could realize you unfriended them.
- They will no longer see your posts and updates in their News Feed.
- Any future friend requests from you will show up as “Add Friend” rather than “Confirm Friend Request.”
- If you had a mutual Facebook group, the person will no longer see you listed as a member.
- You will disappear from their friends list.
So while Facebook does not directly notify someone when you unfriend them, there are enough clues that a perceptive person could likely figure it out if they noticed you disappearing from their social feeds and friends lists.
Similar to Facebook, when you unfollow someone on Instagram, they do not get notified directly. However, they may be able to tell in some of the following ways:
- Their follower count will decrease by 1.
- Your profile will no longer show up in their follower list.
- Any comments you made on their posts will remain, but your name will show up as just your username rather than a clickable link to your profile.
- You will no longer be able to see their story updates.
As with Facebook, someone who is paying attention may notice the changes that indicate you no longer follow them, but Instagram does not proactively send them any kind of alert.
On Twitter, if you unfollow someone, they will not receive a notification about it. Some signs that could tip them off include:
- Seeing their follower count drop by 1.
- Noticing your name and photo disappear from their followers list.
- No longer seeing your tweets and retweets in their timeline if they switch to viewing tweets from accounts they follow only.
However, with the huge volume of followers many Twitter users have, losing 1 is unlikely to stand out in most cases.
Snapchat
Snapchat also does not notify a user if you unfriend them. Some ways they may still realize it include:
- When viewing their friend list, your name will disappear.
- They will no longer see your name and Bitmoji on their Chat screen.
- Your Snapchat score will disappear from their friends list.
- You will be removed from their Custom Friend Groups if they had you in one.
As with other platforms, there are signs that your unfriending happened, but no direct notification is sent.
On LinkedIn, when you unconnect from someone, they do not receive a notification. Some ways they might notice include:
- Seeing your profile photo disappear from their network.
- Noticing the number of connections in their network is reduced by 1.
- No longer seeing your posts and activity updates.
As a professional social network, LinkedIn does not have as much informal back and forth between connections, so ending the connection could go unnoticed in many cases.
YouTube
On YouTube, if you unsubscribe from someone’s channel, they do not get notified about it directly. Some signs that it happened include:
- Their subscriber count going down by 1.
- Your profile photo no longer appearing on their subscribers list.
- No longer seeing their community posts.
With YouTubers often having millions of subscribers, one person unsubscribing is unlikely to stand out in most cases.
Twitch
On the livestreaming platform Twitch, no notification is sent if you unfollow a channel. Some possible signs include:
- Seeing their follower count decrease by 1.
- Your name disappearing from their follower list.
- No longer getting notified when they go live.
However, as many streamers have thousands or even millions of followers, one person unfollowing does not tend to be noticeable in most cases.
On Reddit, you can choose to unfollow posts from a particular subreddit. If you do so, there is no notification sent to the community moderators. Possible signs include:
- Seeing the subreddit’s follower count decrease (this is shown to moderators).
- No longer having posts from that community appear in your home feed.
Given the active nature of subreddits with new posts constantly coming in, one lost follower is unlikely to be noticed in most cases.
TikTok
If you unfollow someone on TikTok, they do not receive a notification to let them know. Some ways they might be able to tell include:
- Seeing their follower count reduced by 1.
- Noticing your profile missing from their follower list.
- No longer seeing your likes and comments on their videos.
However, with many popular creators having millions of followers, one less follower slipping away is unlikely to get spotted in most cases.
On Pinterest, if you unfollow a board, the owner does not receive any notification about it. Some signs that it happened include:
- The board’s follower count decreasing by 1.
- Your name no longer appearing on the board’s list of followers.
- Pins from that board stopping to appear in your home feed.
Boards can easily have thousands of followers, making a single unfollower unlikely to stand out to the owner in most cases.
Summary
Across all major social media platforms, the act of unfollowing, unfriending, or unsubscribing does not trigger a direct notification to the user you are disconnecting from. However, there are typically some clues that could allow a perceptive user to figure out that you unfollowed them, such as seeing follower counts decrease or your name disappear from their friends/followers lists.
Some signs that you unfollowed/unfriended someone include:
- Seeing their follower/friend count decrease
- Having your name removed from their friends/followers lists
- No longer seeing their posts and updates
- Removal from shared groups and communities
But in most cases, unless the person has a very small number of friends/followers to begin with, your disappearing act is unlikely to get spotted. So you can generally unfollow and unfriend discreetly without the other user getting a direct notification about it.
| Platform | Notification Sent? |
|---|---|
| No | |
| No | |
| No | |
| Snapchat | No |
| No | |
| YouTube | No |
| Twitch | No |
| No | |
| TikTok | No |
| No |
Conclusion
While social media platforms generally do not directly notify someone when you unfollow or unfriend them, there are often subtle clues that it happened which a perceptive user may notice. However, in most cases with large friend/follower counts, your social media snub is likely to go unseen. So if you want to quietly end a connection without alerting the other user, you can comfortably unfollow and unfriend away on most major platforms.