Tag Archives: Block Facebook Apps

How to Block Apps in Facebook

There are some fun games that people play on Facebook.  But what if you don’t want to play?  How do you stop all those game notices and invitations without unfriending the person?  What I’m talking about is items like the image below that show up in your news feed.  These games are Apps and you can block them by going to the public ‘Page’ for that App. Sometimes, you can use the offending game notice to navigate to the page where you can block it.

1.  When you see a game request and you want to block the game, the first step is to discover the name of the game.  Then you need to go to the App Page for the game.

2.You need to use Facebook’s Search feature to find the App’s Page.  Not the game, not the software, not the toy, but the Page.

 

3. You can tell you’re at the App’s Page if you see a ‘Like’ button and a ‘Play Game’ Button.  Directly below the banner image, at the right, click on the dropdown arrow and you’ll see ‘Block App.’

 

 

That’s it!  You won’t be hearing from that game again.  If you should ever change your mind, and you want to UNblock it, you can go to your account’s Privacy settings.  At the bottom, you’ll see Blocked People and Apps.  That’s where you can Unblock.

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour.

For more training on Facebook, go to our page of tutorial videos on Facebook.  The first 3 are free to watch for anyone, the rest require a Geeks on Tour membership.

How to Block Annoying Facebook Apps

Fullscreen capture 932011 105351 AMWhen we presented our Facebook seminar to a packed room at the Escapade RV Rally this week, we got the most applause for teaching how to block Apps, so we thought it would be a good topic for a newsletter aticle!  If you’ve used Facebook for any length of time, you’ve probably been annoyed by games and other apps that your friends may be playing.  Many of my friends, for example, were playing Farmville.  My Facebook home page was quickly overrun with invitations to play Farmville, and notices when a friend’s crop was doing well, or a pig needed some more corn?!  I didn’t want to unfriend a person just because they were playing this game.  Who am I to say what game they should or shouldn’t play?  But, I really didn’t want all those notices on my News Feed.

Hiding Posts about an App vs. Blocking the App

I found the X at the right side of one of these posts and saw the ability to Hide just posts related to the Farmville game.  That worked fine, but the folks at Facebook have made it even better.  Just this week, Facebook made a lot of changes to the way you manage your privacy settings.  One thing is that they’ve given us the ability to completely block specified apps.  Just like you can UNfriend a person, or UNlike a company, you can now Block an App.  Farmville, and many other games are Apps. You’ll find the Block option in the same place on the App’s page as UNfriend on a personal profile, or UNlike on a business page – at the bottom of the left sidebar of the App in question.

So, here’s what you do:  Find one of the offending posts in your newsfeed.  If you look closely at the line underneath the game, you’ll see a link to the Application responsible.  It is usually right after the word ‘via.’  Clicking that link will take you directly to the page for that App/Game.  If you look at the left sidebar, at the bottom, you’ll see ‘Block this App.’

Managing your Block Lists

If you ever want to UNBlock an App, or you just want to see what Apps you have blocked so far, you can manage your Block lists on your Acccount.  Just click on Account and then Privacy Settings.  You’ll see Block Lists at the bottom.