Teaching Facebook

Friend lists are a way to organize your friends on Facebook and create custom privacy settings. You can also use them to filter the stories you see in News Feed.

To create and edit friend lists, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Friends page. Click the Account drop-down at the top of any page, and then click on "Edit Friends."
2. Click "Create a List" at the top of the page to create a new list. You can also select an existing list on the left side of the page and enter friends' names to add them.

If you have more than two friend lists, you can also add or remove friends from lists using the menu that appears next to each name on the Friends page.

Friend lists may come in handy whenever you want to share with a custom audience. In addition to sharing content with or hiding content from specific people, you can type in the name of any friend list you created. This saves you time and can help you selectively share or hide content from a specific group of people.

Learn more about friend lists.

To add someone to a friend list when you send them a friend request, open the Add to List dropdown menu and select a friend list before you send the request. This menu only displays friend lists you've already created (learn how to create a friend list).

The person will automatically become part of the friend list you choose if they confirm your request. The privacy settings you've set for that friend list will also apply to your new friend.

To add someone to a friend list when you accept a friend request, follow the steps below:

1. Click on the friend request.
2. Use the drop-down menu to select a Friend List that you have already created. If you want to make a new friend list for this person, type the name of a new list in the "Create List" field.
3. Click "Confirm."

If you create a friend list during the confirmation process, the Friend List will be stored on the Friends page. You can always go to the Friends page to edit the list.

You can change who can see your friends from the "Connecting on Facebook" section of your Privacy Settings page. To get there:

1. Choose the "Privacy Settings" option in the Account drop-down menu at the top of any Facebook page.
2. Select "View settings" in the "Connecting on Facebook" section.
3. Change the setting for "See your friend list."

By default, everyone can see your friends. If you like, you can easily change your friend list privacy setting.

You can control the visibility of your friend list right from your profile.

1. Go to your profile and click Edit in the top right corner.
2. From the menu in the left column, click Friends and Relationships.
3. Go to the Friends section and use the audience selector on the right side to control who can see your friends.

To edit the name of a friend list, take the following steps:

1. Select the list you want to edit.
2. Click the "Edit List" button at the top of the page.
3. Click "Edit Name."
4. Type the new list name into the field and click "Save List."

The friends you choose to feature on your profile fall under the same privacy setting as your regular friend list. To make changes to who can see your featured friend lists:

1. Go to your privacy settings.
2. Click the "View Settings" link within the "Connecting on Facebook" section.
3. Go to the "See your friend list" setting and make adjustments as necessary.

When on the invite page for a group or event, you can enter the name of your friend list into the field on the right. After selecting the friend list you want to invite, the friends that qualify to be invited will appear in the invitation queue. Please note that a friend may not qualify to be invited if he or she is not a member of the network a group is registered under.

You can have up to 100 friend lists.

You can have up to 1,000 friends per friend list. You can have the same friend on multiple lists as well.

To delete a friend list, first select the list from the Friends page. After making your selection, the "Delete List" option will appear at the bottom of the page.

When someone sends you a friend request, public stories about you (i.e., stories that have the privacy set to "Public") may appear in their News Feed. If you decline a friend request from this person, stories about you will not appear in their News Feed anymore.

News Feed will never show stories that a non-friend wouldn’t ordinarily be able to see. For example, if you posted a video and set the privacy to "Friends," a person who is waiting for you to approve their friend request would not see that in their News Feed. If you had set the video to be Public, that person would see it.

You can always change your privacy settings by selecting "Privacy Settings" under the Settings drop-down menu and clicking the appropriate section.

When you send a friend request to a person, public stories about them (stories that have the privacy set to "Public" may appear in your News Feed. This way you don’t have wait for them to respond to your friend request to see their public updates. Please note that News Feed will never show stories that a non-friend wouldn’t ordinarily be able to see. People who have yet to accept your friend requests will also appear on the Friends page. Here, you can add them to Friend Lists.

If you don’t want to see stories from a person who has yet to accept your friend requests, you can hide them from your News Feed by placing your cursor to the right of a story about them and clicking the "Hide" link that appears. Alternatively, you can remove them as a friend by clicking the "X" next to their name on the Friends page.

If you appear in another person’s featured friend list or group and do not want to appear there, you should either ask your friend to remove you from the list or leave the group. If your friend will not remove you from their list, you can also remove this person as a friend. This will cause you to no longer appear on the person’s featured friend list.

You can create a list of friends who only have limited access to your profile. To learn how to create a friend list with higher privacy settings, click here. You can create a list of friends who only have limited access to your profile. First, create a friend list for the people you from which want to limit visibility. Then, use the custom audience option to hide parts of your profile from that list of people.

You are able to customize which friends and Friend Lists are (or are not) allowed to view your content. To use these options, select the "Privacy Settings" option from the "Account" drop-down menu at the top of any Facebook page.

To add someone to your Limited Profile list, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Friends page.
2. Click on the "Limited Profile" Friend List in the left sidebar. If you do not see a "Limited Profile" friend list in this section, you can create one by clicking the "Make a New List" button and then naming the list.
3. Click "Edit List."
4. Type your friend’s name into the "Add to List" field. You must be friends with a person to add him or her to the Limited Profile list.

To prevent users on this list from seeing certain content, please follow the steps below:

1. Click the "Privacy Settings" option in the Account drop-down menu at the top of any Facebook page.
2. Go to the Profile Information section.
3. Select any Profile privacy setting and click "Customize."
4. Enter the name of your limited profile friend list in the "Hide this from these people" section to restrict these users from viewing the profile content you selected.

By default, anyone on Facebook can send you a friend request. If you’d like to modify who can send you friend requests:

1. Go the Account menu at the top right corner of Facebook and choose Privacy Settings.
2. Next to the Manage Settings for How You Connect heading, click Change Settings.
3. Select your preference from the dropdown menu next to “Who can send you friend requests?”