Is the other person notified when I unfriend them?

No. There is no notification. They may eventually notice you are no longer on their friends list, but nothing announces it.

Can they tell some other way?

Only indirectly — a friends-only post of theirs stops appearing for you, or your comment history together stops growing. Neither is an explicit signal.

Can I become friends again later?

Yes, either person can send a new friend request at any time. Unfriending does not block future requests.

Does unfriending delete our past messages?

No. Message history in Messenger is unaffected by the friend status changing — you can still message each other unless you separately block.

How to Unfriend Someone on Facebook

Unfriend someone on Facebook from their profile or your friends list, whether they are notified, and how unfriending compares to unfollowing and blocking.

Updated 2026-08-24

Quick answer

Where to click

From their profile

Friends button
Unfriend

From your friends list

search their name
three-dot menu
Unfriend

Facebook renames these menus periodically. If a label does not match, read the screen you are on rather than forcing this exact wording.

Confirm, and the friendship ends immediately. No notification is sent to them.

What changes

You are no longer on each other's friends list.
Friends-only posts on either side stop being visible to the other.
You can still message each other through Messenger — unfriending does not restrict messaging the way blocking does.
Either of you can send a new friend request at any time; there is no cooldown, unlike re-blocking after an unblock.

What does not happen

No notification, tag, or visible signal to the other person.
Past messages and photos you were tagged in together are unaffected.
Mutual friends, groups, and Pages you both belong to are unaffected — unfriending is strictly between the two of you.

Unfriend vs. the softer options

Unfriending is a real, visible-in-effect decision — it is not reversible without a new request, and their friends-only content disappears from your feed and vice versa. If that is more than you actually want:

[Unfollow](/privacy/unfollow-on-facebook) hides their posts from your feed while the friendship stays fully intact — the better choice if the only issue is feed content.
[Restrict](/privacy/restrict-someone-on-facebook) hides your friends-only posts from them specifically, again without ending the friendship — the better choice if the issue is what they see of you.
Snooze hides them for 30 days automatically, useful if the issue is temporary.

Many people who search for "unfriend" actually want one of these, since unfriending removes the option to see each other's friends-only content at all going forward — a genuine, if quiet, ending.

If the goal is no contact at all

Unfriending alone does not stop someone from messaging you, tagging you in public content, or finding your public profile. If genuine no-contact is the goal, blocking is the tool that actually achieves it — unfriending is a lighter step that many people take first, without realizing it does not prevent contact.

Official source

Meta's unfriending documentation covers current behaviour. Your own friends list reflects the actual current state.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the other person notified when I unfriend them?: No. There is no notification. They may eventually notice you are no longer on their friends list, but nothing announces it.
Can they tell some other way?: Only indirectly — a friends-only post of theirs stops appearing for you, or your comment history together stops growing. Neither is an explicit signal.
Can I become friends again later?: Yes, either person can send a new friend request at any time. Unfriending does not block future requests.
Does unfriending delete our past messages?: No. Message history in Messenger is unaffected by the friend status changing — you can still message each other unless you separately block.