Download Article
Reduce the number of friend request you get on Facebook
Download Article
This wikiHow teaches you how to reduce the number of people who can send you a friend request on Facebook by changing the friend request filter from "Everyone" to "Friends of Friends". While you can't turn off friend requests entirely, changing the filter will drastically cut down on the number of people who can friend you.
Quick Steps
- Click or tap ☰ or your profile picture.
- Click or tap Settings & privacy .
- Click or tap Settings .
- Click or tap How people find and contact you .
- Select "Friends of friends" next to "Who can send you friend requests?"
- Toggle off "Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile."
- Toggle off "Allow your profile to be recommended to people looking at similar profiles."
Steps
-
Open Facebook. It's a dark-blue app with a white "f" on it. Doing so will open your News Feed if you're logged into Facebook.
- If you aren't logged in, go ahead and log in with your email address (or phone number) and password.
-
Tap ☰ or your profile icon. It's either in the bottom-right corner of the screen (iPhone) or in the top-right corner of the screen (Android).Advertisement
-
Scroll down and tap Settings & privacy . It's next to an icon that resembles a gear. It's towards the bottom of your profile menu. This expands the Settings & privacy menu.
-
Scroll down and tap Settings . It's at the top of the "Settings & privacy" menu.
-
Scroll down and tap How people find and contact you . It's below "Audience and visibility" header.
-
Select Friends of Friends . You can do so using the drop-down menu next to "Who can send you friend requests?" You can't stop all friend requests, but you can make it so that only friends of friends can send you a friend request.
-
Toggle off "Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile." It's towards the bottom of the menu. This prevents people from finding your Facebook profile using search engines like Google.
-
Toggle off "Allow your profile to be recommended to people looking at similar profiles." It's at the very bottom of the menu. This prevents your Facebook profile from being sent to other people looking for similar profiles. [1] X Research source
- For additional privacy, make sure "People with your email address" and "People with your phone number" are set to "No one." Set "Who can see your friends list" to "Only me". Then go through the rest of the privacy settings to make sure your Facebook page is private .
Advertisement
-
Go to Facebook's website. It's at https://www.facebook.com/ . If you're already logged into Facebook, doing so will open your News Feed.
- If you aren't logged into Facebook, go ahead and log in with your email address (or phone number) and password in the upper-right side of the page.
-
Click your profile picture. It's in the upper-right corner of the Facebook page.
-
Click Settings & privacy . It's in the pop-up menu that appears when you click your profile icon. It's next to an icon that resembles a gear.
-
Click Settings . It's at the top of the "Privacy & settings" in the upper-right corner.
-
Scroll down and click How people find and contact you . It's below "Audience and visibility" header in the menu bar to the left.
-
Select Friends of Friends . You can do so using the drop-down menu next to "Who can send you friend requests?" You can't stop all friend requests, but you can make it so that only friends of friends can send you a friend request.
-
Toggle off "Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile." It's towards the bottom of the menu. This prevents people from finding your Facebook profile using search engines like Google.
-
Toggle off "Allow your profile to be recommended to people looking at similar profiles." It's at the very bottom of the menu. This prevents your Facebook profile from being sent to other people looking for similar profiles.
- For additional privacy, make sure "People with your email address" and "People with your phone number" are set to "No one." Set "Who can see your friends list" to "Only me". Then go through the rest of the privacy settings to make sure your Facebook page is private .
Advertisement
Community Q&A
Search
-
QuestionHow can I accept a friend request but stop them from seeing my posts?Community AnswerWhen post, click the 'share settings' button next to the 'post' button. From there, click 'more options' and 'custom.' This pop-up will allow you to share with specific people or prevent certain people from seeing your posts.
-
QuestionHow do I block a friend request?Community AnswerYou can't block a friend request, but you can deny it, which has the same effect.
-
QuestionHow do I remove all outgoing friend requests on Facebook?Community AnswerYou have to go into the outgoing friend request section and cancel them one by one.
Ask a Question
200 characters left
Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.
Submit
Advertisement
Video
Tips
- If one of your friends has a friend who continues to attempt to add you, you can always block them.Thanks
Submit a Tip
All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published
Name
Please provide your name and last initial
Thanks for submitting a tip for review!
Advertisement
Warnings
- It is impossible to completely restrict friend requests on Facebook.Thanks
Advertisement
About This Article
Article Summary
X
1. Open the Facebook app.
2. Tap the menu.
3. Tap Settings
.
4. Tap Account Settings
.
5. Tap Privacy
.
6. Tap Who can send you friend requests?
7. Tap Friends of friends
.
Did this summary help you?
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 901,903 times.
Advertisement
