Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
How to cancel a friend request on Facebook
It was a good idea in hindsight. You met someone, they looked nice, and you sent a friend request on Facebook. Fast-forward a day or two, and suddenly you’re having doubts. Was that necklace really made of human teeth? Here’s how to cancel a friend request on Facebook so you don’t have that creepy someone on your social media.
QUICK ANSWER
To cancel a friend request on the desktop Facebook site, go to your profile and click the Friends link. Now click Friend requests > Friend requests > View sent requests. A box will pop up with any pending invite requests, and you can cancel any at the click of a button. On the Facebook mobile app, you can only cancel a friend request by going to the person's Facebook profile and tapping the Cancel Request button.
JUMP TO KEY SECTIONS
How to cancel a friend request on the desktop Facebook site
If you’re looking to cancel a Facebook friend request on the desktop site, go to your profile and click Friends.
At the right of the next screen is Friend requests. Select that.
The next option is also called Friend requests. You know what to do.
The next screen will show you all of the pending friend requests from other people that you have yet to respond to. But to see ones that you have sent to other people, click the very small blue View sent requests link.
A box will now pop up with all of the pending friend requests that you have sent. Find the one you want to cancel and click Cancel Request.
How to cancel a friend request on the Facebook mobile app
This is one of those rare occasions when it’s much easier to do on the mobile app. Simply go to the person’s profile and tap Cancel Request. That’s it.
FAQs
That means the person has already accepted your request. All you can do now is unfriend them, and possibly block them if you think that’s warranted.
No, the other person is not notified. Your friend request will quietly disappear from their pending requests page. Of course, if they had already seen that you had previously sent them a friend request and it was no longer there, they might wonder what changed your mind.
The Add Friend button will now say +1 Add Friend.
14 days. After this, the Add Friend button will come back, and you can make a fresh friend request.
That’s because they have restricted in their account settings who can send them friend requests. It will either be a friend of a friend, or nobody.