Are you feeling overwhelmed by someone on Facebook Messenger, but blocking them seems too harsh? Well, restricting them may be a good middle ground. But before you do that, it’s important to understand what restricting someone on Messenger actually does.

What Happens If You Restrict Someone on Messenger?

When you restrict someone on Messenger, your conversation with them gets removed from the chat list. The other person can still message or call you, but you won’t be notified. However, Messenger will notify you if that person sends a message or calls in a group that you’re also a part of.

Restricting a person on Messenger prevents them from viewing your active status or seeing whether you’ve read their messages. However, they will remain on your friends list and can still see and interact with your Facebook posts as usual.

The good news is that restricting someone on Messenger does not delete any past messages. So, if you unrestrict the person later, all the previous messages, including texts they may have sent while they were restricted, will be restored.

If You Restrict Someone on Messenger, Will They Know?

It’s worth noting that Facebook does not notify the other person when you restrict them. Since the other person can still message you and view your Facebook activity, they are unlikely to know if you’ve restricted them on Messenger.

However, over time, an observant person may begin to notice certain signs indicating they have been restricted. For instance, if you consistently ignore their messages or calls, they may eventually realize they have been restricted.

How to Restrict or Unrestrict Someone on Facebook Messenger

The Messenger app on your Android or iPhone makes it fairly straightforward to restrict an account.

Follow these steps to restrict an account on Facebook Messenger:

Once you restrict a person on Messenger, you won’t be able to find your conversation with them or contact them.

If you want to see everyone you’ve restricted on Messenger or unrestrict someone, you’ll need to access your privacy settings.

To unrestrict someone, follow these steps:

Restricting someone is a great way tolimit people contacting you on Facebook. However, if you’re seeking a more stringent approach, considerblocking someone on Messengerinstead. Doing so will prevent the other person from viewing your profile, sending messages, or engaging with your posts.