Facebook – How to choose which friends and group chat to show in Facebook sidebar

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Facebook's chat sidebar frustrates me to no end. It uses some algorithm to place people who I have apparently recently interacted with on the bar, despite not having talked to them or commenting or liking anything on their profile in a long time. This means that the group chats and people who I actually chat with are not visible in the sidebar.

Facebook stupidly does not allow you to change who appears in this list. How can I change this? I run Google Chrome and it is a home PC running Windows 10 (not that the OS should make a difference).

  1. Select which friends and group chats to permanently, prominently display in the chat sidebar
  2. Do not display the friends and group chats that I have not chosen to display (basically, I whitelist the chats I wish to appear on the sidebar)
  3. The method should be actively developed to allow for rapid fixes when Facebook inevitably changes the site code and layout, breaking it

Best Answer

On Facebook

  • Click on the gear icon at the bottom of the chat sidebar,
  • choose Advanced settings,
  • choose the 2nd option, "Turn off chat for all friends except..."
  • In the text box that appears, enter the names of all those that you wish to whitelist. (Or create a list in Friends settings, and enter the name of the list)
  • Click Save.

One Caveat, a friend that you don't see in the sidebar, is a friend that won't see you in theirs.

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