How to ignore Facebook messages without alerting the sender
If you’re like me, you don’t like to receive a deluge of private messages from group members.
Some… okay A LOT of mine want one-on-one treatment when their post gets declined or they don’t like something else that’s going on in the group.
I provide a general customer service email address to corral these communications, and my virtual assistant responds to those emails. The email address is located in the group’s description, multiple pinned posts, on the connected website, etc.
However….
I sometimes don’t follow my own guidelines for myself (insert embarrassed emoji here 😳), so to make sure I personally enforce my rule that people send an email, I put as many group-related messages on “ignore” as possible.
I prefer to use “Ignore Messages” instead of “Block” because the sender will have no way of knowing I’ve blocked them. They will just see that I have not (ever) read their message – and maybe, just MAYBE, they will use the email!
Remember, when you block a user from sending messages, they’ll receive an alert that says you are not receiving messages at that time (from them). Sometimes, blocking is absolutely called for, but “ignore” is much more gentle.
And, it’s super easy to do. (These instructions are shown using mobile, which I find to be faster and easier, in this case.)
- Open Facebook messenger and select the chat or person you wish to ignore. Swipe left to reveal the menu.
- Open the hamburger menu. You have a bunch of options here. Select “Ignore Messages.”
- Confirm that you are indeed ignoring all messages from this sender.
- Feel better about managing messages in a way that works best for you!
Once you set a message to “ignore,” you won’t see the messages again and the sender will just figure you haven’t read them.
