The dead tree version of Wired (March 2008 issue) has a handy hint for how to break up on Facebook without sending a news blast to your friends list about it.
To change your relationship status without the press release, go to Facebook’s privacy options, deselect “Remove My Relationship Status” then, in your profile settings, change “In a Relationship” back to its default setting “Select Status”.
Voila, now you won’t be broadcasting the news of your recent split to the world.
The article points out that your ex’s Mini Feed will still display an update in *their* relationship status, so you can’t get away scot free. They’ll need to delete it themselves. Oh well.
Stephanie
Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 10:46 AMor go to your privacy settings, and go to your news feeds options, and uncheck the box that correlates to relationship status.
GS
Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 12:40 PMOr you can change your status and then go to your mini feed and hide the story….
Sure – someone may have seen it in the 30 seconds it was changed – but it’s not really hard to hide info from your feed
LampshadeHat
Sunday, March 16, 2008 at 10:45 AM@GS: Unfortunately your mini-feed isn’t tied to the big news feed, and unless you change your privacy settings, simply deleting the info from the mini-feed doesn’t remove it from the news feed.
Xheneta Ferizi
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 9:41 PMYes, it does.
Jose
Sunday, March 16, 2008 at 10:00 PMthanks stephanie. your directions were clear.
the author’s steps were unclear:
1) go to Facebook’s privacy options
where it says privacy on the upper right hand side? ok.
2) deselect “Remove My Relationship Status”
where? i don’t see the option.
3) in your profile settings, change “In a Relationship” back to its default setting “Select Status”.
where? i don’t see the option.
instructions failed.
Ninni
Saturday, April 5, 2008 at 3:47 AMThis is kinda off topic, but does any one know how to change the the status of some of your friends to restricted after they’ve been added?
Timothy
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 12:41 PMThis comment has been deemed inappropriate and has been deleted
jay
Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 1:02 AMHow can I prevent receiving mini-feeds or news-feeds from specific friends ?
thank you
will
Monday, September 29, 2008 at 3:48 PMcan this be undone? i have removed mine from my account but want it back, is there any way to do this? or is it gone for good once you do it?
Ethan
Friday, January 23, 2009 at 3:16 AMHere’s how I removed relationship status completely from “info” page on profile. First, go to your profile. Open “basic information.” Use the pull-down menu on relationship status. Here’s the important part: above the option for “single,” there’s a completely blank option — there’s no text, and it’s hard to see at first, but it is there. Pick that blank option. Hit “save changes.” That should work. Let me know if you agree.
Melinda
Friday, January 8, 2010 at 11:10 AMThanks…
Kitty
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 7:48 AMWith the new timeline you do similar but it’s easier. Click on the “about” on your profile/timeline then “basic info” then on relationship status click the little triangle by the gear and select “only me” You will still see it but no one else will.
adam
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 7:07 PMEthan, you are a star. I have been lookinq for this for almost a year…. the completely blank option is hardly obvious!!!
megan
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 10:40 AMEthan you are brilliant!!
Victor
Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 3:20 AMMegan and Ethan. if you already have a boy/girlfriend, it will tell them ” your boy/girlfriend has removed you as their boy/girlfriend…. thats what we are trying to NOT do.
Trish
Monday, July 13, 2009 at 2:36 PMokay, heres how you hide your relationship status WITHOUT notifying anyone including your current spouse.
-go to ‘edit my profile’ (under your profile picture)
-once the editing box opens, click on the information box that has your relationhip status.
-A small box should open that has the options to hide certain information including your relationship status.
-Click on relationships and your golden.
Editing that information will NOT go to your news feed and will NOT notify anyone including your spouse. However, if anyone on your friends list visits your profile, they will see that your relationship is blank even if your still currently in that relationship. This also implies to your spouse when he/she visits your profile page
youke
Friday, August 21, 2009 at 8:52 AMinstead i wanna hide my relationship status, i have been tried to change my status from in a relationship with xxx to engaged to xxx, and of course hoping that it will be appears on both our profile just like before.. but from the moment i changed it, it only appears on my profile or his.. it didn’t appear on both.. i’m wondering why.. tried many different ways, but didn’t work.. does anyone know how to solve this? thanks..
Lisseth
Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 2:43 PMI got a quick question about the relationship status on facebook, i put in a relationship with and the name of my boyfriend in the box and he just recently got the request and accepted it but somehow its saying he is in a relationship with another girl when he clicked on my pic request and he changed the status back to the blank box but it is still showing her name in his info and status, is there anyway he can delete that or the girl has to do it on her end because i also send him a request again but its saying he is already in a relationship and he has tried changing it a few times but it is still showing in a relationship with that girl. Please help if possible
niks
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 2:50 PMTHANX ETHAN
Felicia Bell
Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 2:51 PMwell since facebook changed their privacy settings, the options and settings are completely different and i was wondering how to change this setting now for the news feed when it doesn’t show it anymore.
amy winston
Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 1:32 PMone of my friends is deeply wounded by a guy she loves who wont put in a relationship with {insert her name}
so she wanted to merely hide the fact that she already added “in a relationship with”
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/settings/?tab=privacy§ion=profile
so to privacy and click on controls for
family and relationships
select “only me”
as person who can view it.
Voila !
Chris
Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 4:19 PMGuess what people? Facebook officially f*cked us all over, because now you can’t make changes to your status without it becoming public news. You used to be able to hide it from others that viewed your page, while still keeping the relationship status intact. No more, now you have to cancel the relationship. Just another example of how programmers f*ck websites up with their crappy creativity…
Daniel
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 8:14 AMHey, don’t blame programmers for business/marketing decisions.
kada
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 4:21 AMthanks ethan! there’s a option which is blank over single. U have to click that one and save it! thus u can remove relationship status.
Cha
Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 2:30 PM@kada, what do you do if u want to feed your rel. status after u have hid it before? u know with the blank over the single thingy.
Kate
Monday, April 19, 2010 at 7:53 AMThere is a way to hide your relationship status on the new layout. Go to privacy settings and under ‘family and relationship’ category, select the ‘only me’ option. Or, you can customize which of your friends can and can’t see your relationship status when they view your profile. It will not show up in the recent activity. Hope this helps!
Mike
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 10:20 AM^ awesome! thanks kate =)
myrelationshipstatusisprivate
Friday, August 20, 2010 at 9:01 AMEthan nailed it!!!!! The only answer that made sense and worked. Wow@Facebook not allowing that option above “Single” option to be known!!!!!!!
Seraphim
Saturday, November 13, 2010 at 5:36 PMPrivacy Settings > Customize Settings > Relationships Tab > Custom > These People > Only Me
grichael
Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 8:33 PMi have looked all over the web for an answer to my question and this is the only place that comes close to answering it. How do i remove my name from someone else’s relationship status? I chose to ignore the request and it still displays my name.
ALBERT
Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 4:23 AMHEY,
YOU CAN SIMPLY GO TO THE AREA THAT SAYS ACCOUNT THAT IS ON THE RIGHT DEPENDING ON YOUR BROWSER. AND THEN YOU GO TO THE PRIVACY SETTING-THEN AN AREA APPEARS SAYING CUSTOMIZE SETTINGS.CLICK IT AND IT CARRIES YOU TO THE PLACE THAT SAY: POST BY MAIL, FAMILY AND LASTLY RELATIONSHIP, CLICK ON IT.
THIS ENABLE YOU CONTROL WHO YOU WANT TO SEE YOUR RELATIONSHIP STATUS, AND WHO YOU DON’T WANNA SEE IT.
GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Om Omm
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at 2:48 PMHey,
I have deleted a relationship status with the other party. It no longer appears on my page. But why am I still listed as in relationship on their side (the other person’s profile page)? is that common and is there a way to fix it? or the other party jus has to remove me himself? thanks much :)