Umm… iPhone 5s? Are we talking Apple iPhones here? Are you running a secret prototype of the latest and greatest and slipped as you were typing in your question? Highly curious…
Regardless, however, you’re running the same iPhone operating system (iOS 6) and the same Facebook app whether you’re on a prototype or on a regular iPhone you picked up at the Apple Store or Best Buy. And so, the answer will be the same.
What’s confusing is that because of the way the Facebook mobile app is designed, the required setting isn’t where ya’d think it’d be. Let me show you.
First off, the Facebook app:
Logically, we should just tap on the menu button on the top left since that’s where most everything useful is located. Tap on it and…
There we go! “Messages”. But not quite so fast…
Tap on “Messages” and you get prompted to install yet another app from the Facebook team. As you can see here:
Definitely not what we want to do, and it clearly doesn’t help address the issue of hiding your online chat status.
Instead you need to go to the settings section of the Facebook app. That’s off the home screen, but on the top right. It’s the three horizontal lines with the tiny user profile. Tap on it and you get to the chat area:
What I find confusing about the Facebook app design is that on the Web version of Facebook, “messages” and “chat” are the same thing. On the iPhone, however, they’re seemingly different beasts. I have no explanation why.
The fix is easy, fortunately. See the gear icon on the top right of the grey section? Tap on it.
That’s it at the bottom. “Turn Off Chat”. That’s all you need.
Tap on it and suddenly you go offline:
The app will remember this setting until you change it, so once you’ve done this, you’re good to go and your Facebook pals will never again see you online and available for chat because of your iPhone app.
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