How do I hide my friends list?

Having control over who can see your friends list on social media is important for many users. While some people like having public friends lists so they can easily find and connect with new people, others prefer to keep their list private for security and privacy reasons. Fortunately, most major social platforms allow you to hide or limit your friends list visibility if you wish. Here’s an overview of how to hide your friends list on some of the most popular sites.

Hiding Your Friends List on Facebook

Facebook allows you to set your entire friends list to be visible to only you. To do this:

1. Go to your profile page and click on the Friends tab.
2. In the left sidebar, click on the Edit Privacy button next to your friends count.
3. Set the toggle for Who can see your friends list? to Only Me.

With this setting, only you will be able to see your full friends list. Other people visiting your profile will not see any of your friends. You can also choose options like friends of friends or specific friend lists if you want to show some friends but not all.

Hiding Your List from Specific People

You can hide your Facebook friends list from specific people while leaving it visible to others. To do this:

1. Go to your Friends page.
2. Click on the More Options button (three dots) at the top right.
3. Select Edit Privacy.
4. Click on the pencil icon next to Specific People.
5. Type in the name of anyone you want to hide your list from and click Add.

This will prevent the selected people from ever seeing your friends on Facebook. You can enter as many names as you like to customize who can view your friends list.

Hiding Friends on Instagram

Instagram has a couple options for controlling friends list visibility:

Private Account

Making your Instagram account private is the best way to fully hide your friends list. Private accounts require follower approval, so only approved followers will ever be able to see who you are following or who follows you back. To make your account private:

1. Go to your profile and tap the menu (three lines) in the top right.
2. Tap Settings > Privacy > Account Privacy.
3. Toggle Private Account on. This will require follower approval moving forward.

Hide Story from Specific People

If you want to hide just your story from certain people, you can do that while keeping your account public. Your story shows viewers who you follow and who follows you back. To hide it:

1. Go to your profile and tap the three lines in the top right.
2. Tap Settings > Privacy > Story.
3. Under Hide Story From, tap Hide Your Story From.
4. Enter names to select people to hide your story from.

This will prevent these selected people from ever seeing your story or the friends list associated with it. Everyone else will still be able to view your story and friends.

Hiding Your Friends on Twitter

Twitter lets you protect your tweets so that only approved followers can see them. This in turn hides your friends list except from approved followers. To do this:

1. On the web, go to your Settings and Privacy page.
2. Select the Privacy and Safety tab > Audience and tagging.
3. Check the box for Protect your Tweets.
4. Click Save.

Once enabled, your tweets and followers/following lists will only be visible to users who you approve to follow you. Unapproved users will not be able to see your friends or any other account info.

Private Twitter Accounts

You can also make your Twitter account fully private so that your tweets are only visible to users you manually approve to follow you. This also hides your friends list except to approved followers. To make your account private:

1. Go to Settings and Privacy > Privacy and Safety.
2. Enable the Make account private option.
3. Save changes.

Your account is now in protected mode. Only approved followers will see your information moving forward.

Hiding Friends on Snapchat

Snapchat has a couple ways to control friends list visibility:

Private Account

Making your Snapchat account private will hide your friends list from everyone except people you add as friends. To enable this:

1. Tap your profile in the top left corner.
2. Tap the gear icon > Privacy Settings.
3. Tap Private Account > Continue.

This will make your account private so random Snapchat users can’t view your friends or see your content.

My Friends

You can also customize your privacy for My Friends, which shows your friend list and stories. To edit this:

1. Tap your profile > Settings > Privacy Settings.
2. Tap My Friends.
3. Choose who you want to show your friends list to.

Options include everyone, friends you add back, or specific added friends. This lets you hide your list from random Snapchat users while still sharing with certain friends.

Hiding Your LinkedIn Connections

Unlike other social networks, LinkedIn doesn’t allow you to completely hide your connections from others on the platform. However, you can choose to exclude some connections from your main connections display.

To do this:

1. Go to your profile and click See all under the Connections section.
2. Hover over any connections you want to hide and click the Hide icon.

This will prevent those connections from being displayed publicly on your profile. Other users will not be able to see these connections when viewing your profile.

Who’s Viewed Your Profile

You can also control who can see the Who’s Viewed Your Profile section, which shows people who have recently viewed your profile:

1. Go to Settings & Privacy > Select Who Can See Your Activity.
2. Edit the Who’s Viewed Your Profile privacy setting.

By default, your 1st degree connections on LinkedIn can see who’s viewed your profile. Changing this setting lets you hide that information from your connections.

Hiding Your Connections on Google+

Google+ allows you to fully hide your connections from public view. To do this:

1. Go to your Google+ profile.
2. Click Edit profile.
3. Expand the sections under Connections.
4. Uncheck the boxes next to each connection type you want to hide.
5. Save changes.

This will remove those connections sections from public view so no one can see your circles, followers, etc. Your profile will only display info you choose to make public.

Who Can See What You Share

Google+ also lets you limit who can see your posts and information sharing. To adjust this:

1. Click the Share button below your profile photo.
2. Change the audience selector from Public to Circles or More.
3. Choose specific circles or people to share with.

Using Circles or customized sharing lets you control who can see your content, limiting info shared with public connections.

Hiding Friends on Pinterest

Pinterest gives you options to hide your friend connections in certain areas:

Profile

You can remove followers from public view on your profile. To do this:

1. Go to your profile > Edit Profile.
2. Click the Followers link.
3. Hover over any followers and click the ellipsis icon > Hide from profile.

This will delist those followers so they don’t appear on your public profile. You can also hide individual boards from followers this way.

Activity Page

Hide your friend activity from your main activity feed. Go to Settings > Privacy and uncheck Show activity about your followers.

This will remove stories about your followers liking or commenting on your pins from your public activity page that all followers can see.

Search & Browse

Prevent connections from seeing your presence when browsing pins. Go to Settings > Privacy and disable Allow others to see your activity on Pinterest when you visit their site off Pinterest.

This stops connections from seeing you’ve visited a site linked from Pinterest, keeping your browsing private.

Hiding Your Tumblr Followers

Tumblr lets you easily hide your follower list so it’s not public on your blog. To do this:

1. Go to your blog settings.
2. Click the Cog icon to access privacy settings.
3. Uncheck the box next to Show how many followers I have.

This will remove the follower count from your blog so no one can see the number of followers or who specifically follows you.

Private Blogs

For even more privacy, you can make your Tumblr blog fully private so all your info is hidden. To enable this:

1. Go to Settings > Privacy.
2. Check the box for Make this blog private.
3. Save settings.

Now only users you manually approve can access or follow your private blog account.

Hiding Friends on Other Networks

Most other social networks also give you some control over friends list visibility and privacy:

YouTube

– Hide subscriptions from channel page under Customize Channel > Advanced settings.

Twitch

– Make your account private under Settings > Security and Privacy.

Reddit

– Uncheck Show my followers under User Settings > Profile.

Discord

– Use invisible mode to appear offline or block specific friends.

TikTok

– Switch your account to private under Privacy and Safety settings.

Clubhouse

– Use Backstage to privately see followers and who you follow.

Other Ways to Increase Privacy

In addition to hiding your friends lists, here are some other tips for boosting privacy and security on social media:

• Use strong passwords and enable two-factor authentication.
• Limit personal info shared publicly on your profiles.
• Customize tagging permissions so you’re asked before being tagged.
• Disable location sharing and be cautious about sharing real-time locations.
• Review all apps and services connected to your accounts and revoke access if needed.
• Browse anonymously or use private/incognito modes while online.
• Don’t accept follow requests from suspicious accounts.
• Report spam, fake accounts, harassment to platforms immediately.

Conclusion

Keeping your friends and followers private on social media is an important way to maintain control over your online presence. While platforms encourage public sharing by default, you can customize privacy settings based on your comfort level for each network. Taking the time to hide friend lists, enable private modes, and prune connections allows you to socialize online while still limiting exposure.