How to remove a non-friend from Messenger?

Have you noticed people among your contacts on Messenger that you don’t have as friends on Facebook or that you don’t know? Would you like to remove them from your contacts so that only the people you know show up on the list? In today’s post, you’ll find an explanation of why Messenger suggests contacts you have nothing in common with. In addition, I’ll show you how to remove a non-friend from Messenger in 4 different ways 🙂

Why do non-friends appear on Messenger?

Wondering why Messenger shows you non-friends or people you don’t recognise or remember at all? Here are some possible reasons. 🙂

1. On Messenger you see people you used to talk to

People you don’t remember or don’t associate with may be displayed on Messenger because you have spoken to them in the past. This is a common situation if you have been using Facebook and Messenger for many years. Know that people you used to talk to don’t have to be among your friends to show up in your list of suggested contacts in Messenger.

To see if you’ve ever exchanged messages with a person on Messenger, go to their profile from the “People” section. If you see a conversation it means that you used to talk to that person and have forgotten about it.

2. On Messenger you see people whose numbers you have on your phone

If you see non-friends or people you’ve never exchanged messages with on your contact list on Messenger, there is another explanation for why this is happening. You may have given Messenger access to your contacts from your phone. This is when Messenger may be showing you contacts who are not your Facebook friends, and Messenger has pulled in from your mobile device.

To check if Messenger has access to your contacts on your phone, follow the steps in the instructions below:

1. open the Messenger app,
2. click on the three horizontal bars icon (menu) on the top left,
3. click on the cogwheel (settings) icon next to your username,
4. scroll down and select the “See more in Accounts Centre” option,
5. select the “Your information and permissions” tab,
6. click on “Upload contacts”,
7. select your Messenger account,
8. activate the “Upload contacts” option.

3. On Messenger you see people who have changed their surnames

A third reason why you might not recognise people in your Messenger contact list is that some of them changed their names after marriage. This of course applies overwhelmingly to women.

So before you delete a contact, view the person’s profile and see if they happen to be a friend of yours from years gone by. 🙂

How to remove a non-friend from Messenger on iPhone and Android? 4 ways

I’m getting down to the substance, i.e. explaining how to remove a non-friend from Messenger. You have 4 options to choose from, which I have described below.

Method I. Using the “Hide contact” option

The easiest and quickest way to remove a non-friend from Messenger is to use the “Hide Contact” option. When you use this option, the profile in question will stop displaying in your “People” (Active list) section on Messenger

To remove a non-friend from Messenger using the “Hide contact” option, you need to:

1. open the Messenger app on your phone,
2. go to the “People” (Active list) section at the bottom,
3. hold down on the profile in question and select the “Hide contact” option,
4. click on the blue “HIDE” button.

Once you have followed the steps in the instructions above, the contact in question will no longer appear in the suggested list on Messenger.

Method II. Blocking unwanted people

A much more decisive step to remove a non-friend or other person from Messenger is to block their profile entirely. By blocking a contact on Messenger, we make it impossible for them to send us messages and they disappear from our Messenger contact list. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that the person may realise that we have blocked them. When they open a chat window, they will see a message that reads: “You can’t reply to this conversation”.

How to remove a non-friend from Messenger by blocking:

1. open the Messenger app,
2. open a conversation with the person in the “Chats” section,
3. click on the icon with an ‘i’ next to the user’s name (top right),
4. scroll down and select “Block” and then select “Block” again.

Method III. Disconnecting contacts from your phone

As I mentioned earlier, the fact that our contact list on Messenger shows non-friends and people we haven’t exchanged messages with could be because we have shared our contacts from our phones with the app.

To change this and disconnect your phone contacts from Messenger, and with that – remove non-friends from the suggested people on Messenger, follow the steps below:

1. open Messenger on your phone,
2. select the three-dash icon (menu) at the top left of the screen,
3. click the cogwheel icon (settings),
4. scroll down and select “See more in Accounts Centre”,
5. select the “Your information and permissions” tab,
6. choose “Upload contacts”,
7. click your Messenger account,
8. click “Upload contacts” and change the setting from ” Turn on”, to “Turn off”.

Method IV. Restricting contacts

Since the Messenger users we want to remove may guess when we block them (as I mentioned earlier) it is worth considering another option. An alternative to blocking contacts in Messenger is to restrict them.
This option allows you to remove a conversation with a person from your Messenger chat list, stop receiving message notifications from that contact and hide your activity status from them. In addition – the person whose profile we restrict will not be informed that we have displayed a message from them.

To restrict a contact on Messenger, you need to do the following:

1. open the Messenger app,
2. go to the “Chats” section,
3. click on the conversation with the person,
4. select the icon with an “i” next to their username in the top right corner,
5. scroll down and select the “Restrict” option,
6. select the blue “Restrict (name)” button.

In summary, there are four ways to remove a non-friend from Messenger. These are: using the “hide contact” option, blocking option, disconnecting contacts from our phone and restricting contacts. The method you choose should depend on the effect you want to achieve. 🙂