Social media platforms allow millions of people to interact with each other every day. Sometimes those interactions are less than pleasant. Emotions can be intense and to protect one’s peace, the blocking function is often used. This feature is used to quickly mute someone else’s presence or simply prevent someone from seeing your updates.
However, sometimes we need to unblock another user. If you accidentally blocked someone or forgave them for their offenses, this article is for you.
How to unblock someone on Facebook
Fortunately, Facebook gives us several ways to unblock another user. We will review each one in detail.
Unblocking on Facebook desktop site
To start, let’s go to the Facebook website. You will need to log in to your account. To unblock someone on a desktop computer, follow these steps:
- Click the arrow icon in the upper right corner.
- Click “Settings and privacy.”
- Click “Settings.”
- Click ‘Block’ in the right menu.
- Click “Unblock” next to the name of the person you want to communicate with.
As soon as you have confirmed that you want to unblock the user, you will be able to view their profile, send them a friend request or even send them a message.
How to unblock someone on the Facebook app
Fortunately, you don’t need a computer on hand to unblock someone. If you are using the app, follow these instructions:
- Open the Facebook app and sign in.
- Tap the three horizontal lines. On an iPhone, they are located in the lower right corner. On an Android, they will be in the top right corner.
- Tap “Settings & Privacy.”
- Tap “Settings” from the drop-down menu.
- Scroll down and tap “Block.”
- Tap “Unblock” next to the name of the person you want to unblock.
Now you can see your friends’ profile and they can see yours too!
Of course, since you are reading this article, you have come here to learn how to use this blocking feature to unblock someone. Let’s take a quick visit to Facebook’s privacy center. Start by heading to the Facebook home page and tapping the small inverted triangle in the right corner. This will load a dropdown menu showing a bunch of options, but we’ll want to look at your account settings. Tap “Settings” to continue.
Within your settings menu, you’ll find a bunch of different options in the left column of the screen. This is where you’ll find all the privacy options for your account, but you’ll want to click “Block” to manage the accounts you previously blocked. This will load a page full of explanations about restricted lists, as well as a complete list of your blocked users. You can use this list to unblock any user by tapping “Unblock” next to their name. This will display a warning explaining what happens if you unlock an account, including:
- The unblocked user will be able to see your biography (if it is public) or contact you.
- Previous tags can be restored (these tags can be deleted from your activity log).
- You will not be able to block the user again for 48 hours from the time of initial unlocking.
All of this acts as a warning: proceed with caution when unblocking a user. You may not be happy with the results if that user is especially vindictive or toxic, and you won’t be able to block them again for 48 hours.
Once you’ve made your decision, confirm this message by pressing “Unlock” on your phone or tablet. That user will be officially unblocked from your account and will once again be able to see their name appear in Facebook results and any comments they may leave on mutual friends’ posts.
What happens when you block a contact?
A common question we get asked: what happens when you actually block someone on Facebook? Some users have blocked friends and family without really understanding what was done by blocking them from the account. So let’s have a quick explanation of what blocking does on Facebook. Blocking isn’t an overly complicated decision, but it’s good to know what happens once one of your contacts has been blocked.
As soon as you block that user, they lose the ability to see your entire account. This means your posts, your photos, your tags, and even your account within search results. Effectively, you will have eliminated the privilege of that user being able to see your name on Facebook.
Everything you post, say, share or do will be completely blocked for that user. If you’ve been tagged previously in their posts, your name will still be mentioned, but the link to your account will be removed from the tag (effectively creating a blank tag that only reads your name). This could create strange circumstances for the blocked user. For example, if you comment on a mutual friend’s status or shared post and that friend replies, the blocked user won’t be able to see your post that provides context to the replies. This is probably the biggest indicator that a user has been blocked.
Facebook will not notify the user that they have been blocked, and unlike social competitors like Twitter, when you load the page of someone who has blocked you, Facebook will not display the message “You have been blocked.”
Instead, Facebook will load a generic error message informing the user that the link they are trying to access is unavailable or broken.
Other options for dealing with users on Facebook
Hiding and unfollowing users is a less confrontational way to deal with people who are simply using the platform in a way you don’t agree with. We’ll see.
Find the person you want to unfollow and go to their profile page. At the top of your profile, you’ll find a few different options for your account, including an option that says “Following.” Pull down that menu and see the various options there.
You’ll see three different options, two of which relate to following the user’s account and a third that says “Unfollow.” This will prevent that user’s posts from appearing in your feed at any time while maintaining your online friendship with them. They can still see your posts, like and comment, and you can still see their posts by uploading their direct profile or following a link.
Hiding posts is also an option, similar to unfollowing a user on their profile. From your news feed, find the post you want to hide and click the disclosure triangle for its post. You’ll see a couple of different options.
The first is to hide that post, thus removing the post from your own newsfeed. The second option is to unfollow the user, exactly as we described above but without the additional step of uploading their inpidual profile. Finally, you can also report posts if you find that they violate any kind of Facebook guidelines. what you can see here.
One last option: If one of your Facebook friends (say, a relative or a friend’s mother) is commenting on too many of your posts or photos, or you want to hide optional posts from them to avoid embarrassment or any other type of backlash, we have the solution. perfect for you.
Instead of deleting or blocking them from your Facebook feed, the next time you post something to your Facebook account, simply pull down the “View” options on your post and click on the “Friends except…” or ” Personalized”. . You’ll get the ability to hide your posts from specific users by entering their name in an easy-to-access search box.
You can add or remove these users at any time and can even customize posts later in the future. It’s a great and underused skill that makes it easy to control the audience viewing your content.
Frequent questions
Facebook can be a strange and mysterious place. If you still have questions, we’ve included a few more answers here!
If I block someone on Facebook, can I still message them on Facebook Messenger?
Actually, yes. Contrary to popular belief, you can block and unblock someone on Facebook Messenger. By following the same steps above, you can add names to the Facebook Messenger block list. You can also unblock someone using this same menu.
If I unblock someone, will they know?
Although there are no notifications or alerts that you have unlocked them, it is easy to know. All other users have to do is search for your profile. When you have blocked someone, it will appear to them that you have completely deleted your profile.
If you unblock them, they will be able to see your profile and interact with it again.
