Most people are aware of the difference between deleting and deactivating a Facebook account. If you turn off Facebook, you temporarily close your account and you can reactivate it at any time. If you delete Facebook, you permanently remove your data.
However, you may not know that disabling your Facebook account does not disable Facebook Messenger. This way the other members of the social network will be able to see you and of course they will be able to contact you.
Below we will see how you can disable Facebook Messenger.
Before you can deactivate Facebook Messenger, you need to deactivate your Facebook account, which can done easily from here. If you have not already done so, you should do so before proceeding.
Remember that disabling Facebook and deleting Facebook mean different things to your privacy.
Once you are ready to proceed, follow these step-by-step instructions:
- Open the Messenger application.
- Click on your profile picture in the upper left corner.
- Scroll down and select Legal and Policies.
- To the next screen, select Deactivate Messenger.
- You will be asked to code you.
- Click Continue.
To re-enable Facebook Messenger, simply log back into the Messenger app using it name your username and password.
What happens when you turn off Messenger?
If you turn off Facebook Messenger, no one will be able to see your profile in the app or send you messages in existing conversations.
Reactivating Messenger will also activate your main Facebook account. If you only want to have Messenger, you will need to deactivate your Facebook account a second time.
And keep in mind that if you delete your Facebook account completely, you will lose access to Messenger as well.
