Will The Person Know If I Accidentally Sent A Friend Request And Cancelled It
Don’t worry if you submitted a friend request on Facebook by mistake or later changed your mind: unless the other person has already accepted or refused (ignored) your friend request, you may cancel it, or “unrequest that friend”: this does not unsend the pending friend request, but it does remove it. You can unrequest a friend on Facebook in two ways: a quick one that doesn’t always work, and a longer method that always works, even with the new Facebook. Let’s start with the most foolproof method for canceling a friend request.
On Facebook, you may unrequest a friend (unsend pending friend requests)
Going via the privacy settings and blocking that individual is the most dependable method to unrequest a friend on Facebook, or to unsend / cancel a friend request you’ve previously sent:
- Load the profile of the person you just added as a friend.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page.
- Click the “Report/Block this individual” option on the left side of the screen.
- A popup dialog from Facebook will appear. Click “Submit” after checking the “Block this person” box:
Facebook will indicate that this person has been banned; if you wish to allow this prospective friend to contact you in the future, click the “Privacy” option to unblock them.
The friend request has been canceled, or unsent, now that the individual has been blocked, and it will stay canceled even if you unblock this Facebook member.
While you browse to this person’s profile, instead of the usual “Awaiting friend confirmation” notice that appears when a pending friend request is active, you’ll see the original “Add as Friend” button.
Because you can’t add a person you’ve banned as a Facebook friend, temporarily or permanently banning them will delete any outstanding friend requests (“friend suggestion”) you’ve made.
For canceled requests, there is no active friend request notice.
If the individual has maintained their default Facebook profile settings, they will get an email notice like this with a link to approve or reject the friend request; if this is the case, Facebook will show a “You have no active requests” message:
By canceling the friend request, you may “un-request” people directly.
While you can’t “unsend” a friend request, you may unrequest a Facebook friend or cancel a friend request (hopefully) before the other person sees it if you follow the procedures below:
- Go to your Facebook friends list from your account.
- Scroll through the list until you locate the buddy whose friendship you wish to revoke.
- The phrase “Friend request waiting” will appear on their symbol.
- To cancel the friend request, click the close button (“x”).
If you reach to this stage, your friend request should never be seen by the other person (and not know about your unrequest of the friend suggestion either).
One Last Thought
We hope you were able to cancel the request before the prospective friend discovered it, and that you were able to successfully unrequested your Facebook friend request!