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If you have been using Facebook in recent years, you have probably noticed the “Ignore Message” button in Messenger. This is quite a useful feature if you want to ignore someone without notifying them. But what does this feature exactly do? What are the pros and cons? Let’s take a deep dive into this feature and see what it does and doesn’t do for us.
What is this feature?
Rolled out in January 2020, this feature helps you ignore someone without them knowing about it. At the time, it was a really useful feature for me. I have always tried to ignore group chats and keep my messenger screen as clean as possible. This feature immensely helped me do that because it would limit the ignored messages to the “Message Requests” section. I was able to ignore the chats I didn't care about by clearing the main screen in this way.
What does it do exactly?
This feature simply did what its name suggests. The chats you ignore are moved to the “message request” section of Messenger. Another thing to note is that you will no longer receive notifications from the chat you’ve ignored. This was available until recently. As of writing this article, this feature has been renamed to “restrict”.
📓 It is essential to keep in mind that this feature is exclusive to Messenger and does not have any effect on any other interactions that you might have with the individual on Facebook.
If you want to know more about “Ignore Messages," you can check out our article here.
Blocking vs Restricting vs Archiving
When you block someone, they will see a message that says something along the lines of “This person is unavailable for contact.”. Letting the person know that you have blocked them. On the other hand, When you restrict someone, the person that you’ve restricted will not know that you’ve done something. They’ll be able to text you… try to at least. But you won’t receive any messages from them. And finally, when you archive a chat, you will simply be hiding it from sight but storing it online. The chat doesn’t get deleted and it can still be accessed when searching for the person. And when the person texts you, it will appear on messenger’s home screen. Therefore, you haven’t really done anything other than hide it from immediate sight.
The Update - What’s different
At around mid-2022, this feature was redacted. It was changed to “Restrict”. But let’s take a look at what’s changed. And what are the differences between simply ignoring someone’s messages and restricting them? If you restrict someone, these are the changes that occur:
- You won’t be able to see their messages and chat box in Messenger home.
- You won’t be able to call or video chat with them and your phone won’t ring when they try to call you.
- You will be informed before joining a group chat if someone you’ve restricted is in the group
- The online Status of both parties will be preserved. Meaning that you won’t be able to see when they’re online and vice versa.
- They won’t be able to see if you’ve left their messages on “Seen”
How to Restrict and Unrestrict someone on the app?
In order to restrict someone on messenger, follow the step-by-step method given below:
How to Restrict Someone
- Long press on the chat that you want to restrict
- Select the “Restrict” option
![Click on Restrict Option Messenger]()
fig. Click on Restrict Option Messenger - You’ll be prompted to the following screen
- Simply select the “Restrict (name)” button
![Restrict (name)]()
fig. Restrict (name)
How to Unrestrict Someone
- Go to your profile and then select “Privacy and Safety”
![Messenger- Privacy & Safety]()
fig. Messenger- Privacy & Safety - In this tab, select “restricted accounts”
![Restricted Account]()
fig. Restricted Accounts Option - Here, you’ll be able to see all the people that have been restricted. Here’s an example.
![Messenger Restricted Accounts List]()
fig. Messenger Restricted Accounts List
Conclusion:
To provide a brief summary, the "Ignore Messages" or "Restrict" tool that is available on Facebook enables you to stop receiving messages from a certain person in your Messenger without having to unfriend or block that person. They will not be informed that they have been added to your Ignore Messages list, and they will still be able to access your posts and comments on the website even after they have been included in the list.
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