Your Complete Guide to Blocking Facebook Invites
I’ll tell you right now – if you’re looking for a bulk, “disable all invites” option, there isn’t one. Ryan shared the secret of blocking game invite notifications through your network, but this doesn’t work on mobile, and for some may not be practical. But there are several methods you can go about taming down the amount of notifications you do get. And none of these solutions involve deleting your friends. Because although it may be effective initially, it will never solve the problem.
And lastly, speaking of solving the problem, why doesn’t Facebook just add the feature to block all invites? My theory is it wouldn’t be in their best interest. There’s no doubt that games generate revenue, and as annoying as they are, they are a significant part of Facebook’s model.
This article provides the most current and up-to-date information about Facebook’s settings and invite-blocking capabilities, from your phone to your web browser. Let’s get blocking!
Fend Them Off As They Come
You probably know of the option to block invites from your Notifications, but in case you didn’t, you will now.
From hovering over the notification, click the “x” at the far right. Then click Turn Off.
Note that this only turns off the notifications for that game and doesn’t keep that person from sending you invites for other games. This is the quickest and easiest way for ongoing upkeep for the apps themselves though.
Disable The App Platform
If you don’t have a need for any Facebook apps at all, the most efficient way would be to disable the App Platform. However, before you jump to this, keep in mind that you won’t be able to use any app or connect Facebook to any service, website, etc. This means no logging in with Facebook, posting from various apps to Facebook, nothing.
Still want to continue? Here’s how.
Navigate to your settings by going to the arrow and clicking Settings (above) or from the Privacy Shortcuts icon clicking See More Settings (below).
To the left there will be a column of several options, click Apps.
There will be four different squares. The first one called Apps, Websites and Plugins is where you can toggle the App Platform on and off. Click Edit and click the blue Disable Platform button.
Be sure to read the whole list of what disabling the Platform entails. Of course, you can enable it again at any time.
Disable Instant Personalization
Disabling Instant Personalization doesn’t prevent all app invites like disabling the Platform does, but it does block access to some of Facebook’s “partners”.
Following the instructions mentioned above to get to App Settings, the second square on the Apps page is called Instant Personalization. Click Edit and the blue Disable instant personalization button.
Manage What Friends’ Apps See About You
This section doesn’t disable/block any invites, but it’s a very important setting. Chances are you want the apps your friends use to know very little if not nothing at all about you. This is the 3rd box on the Apps Settings page titled Apps Others Use. If you’ve never been to this section before, you may very well be shocked at what you’re allowing other apps that you don’t even use to know about you.
Manage App Settings On Your Phone
To toggle these three previously mentioned settings from your mobile app, follow these directions:
Click the More icon (three vertical lines). Under Help & Settings, click Account Settings and then Apps.
From here you will see Platform, Instant Personalization, and Apps others use.
See All And Block Current Game Invites
The “App Center” is often not mentioned when advising how to manage and control game invites. And due to recent changes, much of the information provided by websites could be outdated. In fact, this isn’t even called “App Center” anymore, but rather just the Activity tab on the Games page (“App Center” flows better in my opinion).
To get here, scroll down the Home page you’re on until you find the Apps and click Games.
Click Activity and then Invites. You will then see every app you’ve ever been invited to use and the friend who sent the invitation. Click the “X” next to the Accept button.
There will be an option to block the app forever, meaning you’ll never get another invite from that app. Or block that friend from ever sending you another invite. I typically do both.
Block Certain Friends From Sending Invites
There is another way to block friends from sending you invites. This option is most useful if a certain friend doesn’t show up in Game Invites page mentioned above.
Go back to Settings and click Blocking on the left side.
Scroll down to the section Block app invites. The first box will be where you can enter a friend’s name.
NOTE: Unfortunately, there is no way to do this on your phone or any other mobile Facebook app. If you’re looking for a way, there isn’t one… for now. There is only an option for completely blocking people. Hopefully, this changes in the future.
Block Specific Game Invites Completely
Following the directions previously mentioned to get to the Blocking tab in your Facebook Settings, continue scrolling down the page until you see Block apps. This will block that app invite and all future ones, but it only works if you know the name of the app. A dropdown menu of app names is displayed as you type.
Again, as I mentioned previously, you can’t do this from the mobile Facebook app.
Disable Game Invite Notifications (Mobile)
One reason why game invites get on people’s nerves so much is because of constant alerts on their phone. Let’s put a stop to that, shall we?
From the Facebook app, click the More icon to the far right at the top. Scroll down until you find the Help & Settings section and click App Settings, which is the first in the list.
Scroll down to Notification Settings and tap Application requests, second from the bottom.
Now even if you get annoying game invites, you won’t get them on your phone while you’re at work, in class, etc.
What Else Should Facebook Fix?
I wish I could tell you that there is a better way to block all game invites without disabling all apps or having to constantly stay on top of them, but there isn’t. And I would be surprised if there ever will be. I guess if it bothers you enough, you could always just delete your Facebook account. Otherwise these tips are your best option.
Are there any other silly Facebook annoyances you have or things you wish Facebook would just simply fix?
No comments:
Post a Comment