How to avoid “seenzoning” someone on Facebook

Ever since Facebook implemented the “seen” feature on their chatting / messaging service, conversations with friends either improved or got a lot more awkward. The idea is you get to know if your friend has already seen your message and if he/she is ignoring you – hence the term seenzone.

While we can’t really do anything to make your friends stop ignoring you, we can teach you how to ignore people yourself while appearing less rude to them, avoiding Facebook from telling them you’ve already seen the message.

Scenario 1: If you’re in the middle of the conversation and you just need to stop replying without seenzoning, you should always minimize the chat box before he/she even replies. This keeps everything a lot safer; when you return from other tabs or windows, it lessens the risk of accidentally automatically highlighting the chat to type.

Messenger version: before he/she replies, the chat head should already be minimized as well. Let the number of unread messages tick on!

Scenario 2: If you’re still not in the conversation and someone just chats you out of nowhere, most often irritatingly, you should never click on the blinking open chat box. If you click on it, you will let them know you’ve seen the message. However, if you press close (strictly not clicking anywhere else), it works and still registers the message as unread.

Messenger version: don’t engage the chat head! Dismissing it immediately works here too.

Scenario 3: If someone chats you up but you’re not there to know it immediately, the message automatically goes into your inbox, beside your friend requests and your notifications. It’s much easier to avoid seenzoning someone here as it is as simple as not clicking on the unread message.

Messenger version: unlike the desktop counterpart, unread chat heads appear the moment you go back online. The same principle applies; don’t engage!

Now, there are obviously pros and cons here. Obviously, the major pro here is that you can easily hide from people you don’t want to converse with. The con is that you can’t get a full view of their message because you have already decided to ignore it from the start. To make the most out of the downside, you can still check a part of the message through these methods:

Check your inbox, but don’t click! You can get read the latest message he/she has sent, but that works for the most part – unless the last message is “lol” or a smiley.
Check your phone’s notification preview, but then again, don’t tap into it! You may only get a few lines here, and even more if you have the notification expanding feature on Android, but that’s probably enough for someone you want to ignore.

That’s about it for our social network experiment. If you have managed to find a few loopholes and workarounds to “seenzoning”, feel free to tell us in the comments section down below.

P.S. Few words of advice to end with -– be interesting and don’t be annoying. That’s the best way to avoid people from ignoring you.

Disclaimer: ignore at your own risk.

Bob Freking

Bob Freking occasionally contributes articles to the website. He is a UST Graduate of Commerce & Business Administration, Major in Marketing Management, and a full-time Sith Lord with three dragons.

20 Comments

Beulah Beyers says:

6 years ago

My family members all the time say that I am killing my time here at net, but I know I am getting knowledge daily by reading such nice articles or reviews.
- Reply
Oliver Martinez says:

7 years ago

Just incase any of you would be interested to do this on an iPhone. Try this app: NoSeen – The only Facebook Messenger Privacy Tool for iPhone where you can read chats without notifying the user you’ve seen them. It’s FREE. App Store Download Link http://apple.co/2C8UXcr
- Reply
curlyshorthaircuts. says:

10 years ago

Hi, I do believe this is a great website. I stumbledupon it ;) I’m going to revisit once again since I book marked it.
Money and freedom is the greatest way to change, may you be rich and continue
to help other people.
- Reply
jimboy says:

11 years ago

Parang article sa CandyMag. Too girly. Eh ano kung hindi nagreply si friend? Laslas na? Nagiging Vice Ganda nation na tayo oy.
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Jemaima Robles says:

11 years ago

Or maybe, you can start thinking of a list of responses that would end a conversation rather than leaving it ‘seen.’ Better, tell the person why you prefer not to chat at the moment. A real friend understands. :)
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warrior_son says:

11 years ago

Here is another tip if you want to read the entire message without tagging it as ‘seen’
• First, you must activate your email notification and nominate an email address where the notifications will be sent. All notifications will be emailed to you including friend requests, messages and notifications.
• You must not open your facebook account in desktop or mobile, in short totally offline. If this is not followed, no notifications will be sent.
• This tip is more applicaple for those who have not data plan or subscribe in internet promos or wifi connection in office work and if you cannot browse facebook url in your pc’s browser because it was blocked in your firewall server.

:)
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Kiefer Francisco says:

11 years ago

Haha thanks!
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thor says:

11 years ago

or you can use chat undetected. it’s an extension for both firefox and chrome. :)

http://crossrider.com/install/14917-chat-undetected
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abe says:

11 years ago

The best way to avoid seenzoning is to open your email at the background. This is effective on smartphones and even on pc. When someone send you a message dont click on the messenger or chatheads. Instead click your email… the one you use to login on FB. By doing this you can read the message trough email without seenzoning.
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Jai says:

11 years ago

Facebook Unseen needs to access your FB data. No way!
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frekking says:

11 years ago

frekking useless advice! too common sense! try to do more research!
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someguy says:

11 years ago

Why not leave it as it is? It’s the person’s right to ignore you or not. Wala tayo pakialam dun.

I swear some people are probably insecure that they need or demand to not be ignored.
- Reply

enlightened1 says:

11 years ago

Couldn’t agree more. Those evading techniques are just for the immature ninjas out there.

kabayo says:

11 years ago

Facebook unseen +1
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Hider says:

11 years ago

Messenger version.
Turn on wifi
Wait for msg notification
Turn off wifi
read message offline.
- Reply

crackinthewall says:

11 years ago

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mwasiluk.facebookreader

Parang FB Messenger lang pero hindi magreregister kahit seen na?

lol says:

11 years ago

you can just download a plugin in socialreviver.net and activate it’s anti seen zone so people doesn’t know if you read their message.
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Harvie says:

11 years ago

Facebook unseen is an chrome extension thar can save thy life lol
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James says:

11 years ago

You can always turn off chat for certain people you want to ignore. To do this: bring up the chatbox for that certain peron. Click the gear icon & select ‘turn of chat for x’ you can also mute the conversation.
After you do this, all their future messages will go directly to the inbox.
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enzhuing999 says:

11 years ago

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-unseen/iicapmagmhahddefgokbabbgieiogjop

or you can use Facebook Unseen extension in Chrome
- Reply