How to Take a Break From Being Facebook Friends with Someone

Sometimes your relationship with friends can turn sour, and you may feel the need to keep a healthy distance from them. Or maybe you need a way out of the pressure of keeping up with an endless stream of posts from certain Facebook friends.

If for some reason you ever feel like you need to take a break from your regular interactions with a Facebook friend, Facebook has a way to help. Here’s how to do it.

What is the Take a Break feature on Facebook?

The Take a Break feature is exactly what it says on the label. It’s a feature that allows you to limit your Facebook interactions with someone without going through the cumbersome route of directly blocking someone on Facebook. They will be able to see less of their posts while also limiting their ability to see your posts.

There are two important things to note about the Take a Break feature on Facebook:

• Facebook will not notify the person you decide to take a break from about the changes.
• There’s no limit to how long you can pause, so remember to manually undo the changes if you change your mind in the future.

How to enable the Take a Break feature on Facebook

Once you’ve decided you’re fed up with someone else’s posts, here’s how you can take a break from them:

1. In the Facebook app, tap your profile photo in the top left to open your profile page.
2. On your profile page, scroll down and tap See everything to view a list of your friends.
3. On the next page, enter the name of the friend you want to take a break from in the search box.
4. Once the friend’s name pops up, tap through to their profile page.
5. On the friend’s profile page, click the button labeled friends right next to that news button and then tap Take a break.

From now on, we’ll represent the friend you want to take a break from with the letter X. On the Take a break page, you’ll find three options that come with the feature.

1. Tap on the first option that says Show less of X’s profile.
2. Tap on Narrow down where you can see X’s profileand click Save on computer.

The person’s post (and the post they’re tagged in) will no longer appear in your newsfeed. Also, Facebook no longer asks you to send messages or tag them in your photo.

The next option is to restrict what this friend can see on your profile. The idea here is to update your privacy settings to prevent the person from seeing your posts. In order to do this:

1. On the Take a break page, tap Limit what X’s profile will see.
2. Tap on Hide your post from X’s profile and click Save on computer.

From then on, the user will be on the Restricted List. That means they can’t see or interact with posts you share with friends unless you tag them. However, all public posts are still visible to the person.

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Next, tap on the last option labeled To edit who can see past posts.

Here you will find three options. The first option doesn’t change anything. The second option is labeled Edit individual posts.

1. If you prefer to edit the privacy settings for your past posts individually, tap Edit individual posts and type Next bottom of page.
2. On the next page, you’ll see a list of posts where you’ve been tagged with the person you want to take a break from. For each post you want to untag, tap the three dots icon in the top-right corner of the post item, then tap I don’t want to see > remove tag > remove tag to remove tag yourself.

The third option is labeled Edit all my posts and posts I’m tagged in. If you prefer to unsubscribe yourself from any joint post with the friend you want to take a break from, tap Edit all my posts and posts I’m tagged inand then tap Finished to bring about changes.

If you want a more comprehensive approach to limiting interactions with friends, we previously wrote a guide on how to prevent people from contacting you on Facebook.

Keeping up with friends is a choice

You don’t have to maintain close interactions with all your Facebook friends. You can keep them at a safe distance without completely removing them from your digital life.

By using the Take a Break feature, you can significantly limit your interactions with others without setting off alarm bells. What better way to deal with that annoying Facebook friend from your high school days than just take a break?