How to See If Someone Is Active On Messenger?
When the era of social media started, Facebook was one of the earliest social media platforms that influenced the aspect of technology, leading to Facebook raking up an average of 2.93 billion monthly users in total. While Facebook had an inbuilt chat room that allowed users to chat with themselves, the platform decided to convert the chat room into an app, Facebook Messenger, so Facebook users can tact their contacts easily via the app. If youโre a user of the Messenger app, youโll want to know which of your contacts are active, leading us to ask if itโs possible to view active contacts on Messenger.
Itโs possible to know when a user is active on the Messenger app. If you use Messenger often, you may have wondered if you can view the activity of other users on your phone to determine if they are online. Worry not as you can see user activity on Facebook Messenger just like youโd on Facebook.
The Messenger app is an easy platform to operate and itโs easy to view the activity of other users on the app. Hence, in this article, Iโll share with you if you can view the activity of someone on Messenger and how you can find the information you need.
Can You See If Someone Is Active On Messenger?

Facebook is a popular social media platform that has allowed users to share whatโs on their minds, and also contact their loved ones if youโre a lover of Facebook, youโd definitely have come across or used the Messenger app.
While using this app, if youโve been wondering about the possibility of you being able to view the activity of other users on this messaging platform, wonder no more as you can easily view which of your Facebook friends are active on the Facebook Messenger app and can easily text them while theyโre online.
Facebook, created in 2004, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the United States by Mark Zuckerberg, has grown from being a social media platform specifically for interaction and where users can post their thoughts via texts, media, and its inbuilt messaging system, to a business enterprise helping other businesses to be informed on their digital marketing strategies and also helping them run ads on the platform to their perceived audience on the platform.
Since Facebook has grown to house over 2.93 billion monthly active users, which includes both personal and business accounts, getting your business in front of this audience is a huge way to market the business hence why Facebook created the Facebook ads feature.
However, when it comes to the Facebook Messenger app, you can only message your friends or other contacts on the application as itโs a pure messaging application. With Facebook Messenger, you can send and receive texts back and forth just like you would on any messaging app. This app is perfect for users that use Facebook as a medium of interaction between their family and friends.
Being able to know the activity of other users on Facebook to be able to interact with them in real-time via Facebook Messengerโs direct messaging system may be very important to users who use Facebook as a medium of interaction with their family and friends to help inform them on the recency of the recipientโs activity on the platform.
This leads to users wanting to see if their recipients were recently active on the platform to be able to receive their messages quickly. We can view this as one of the reasons why a user would want to view the activity of other users.
Another reason why users may want to view the activity of other users is that some other categories of Facebook users may want to be able to determine the recency of their content (posts, videos, and Facebook Status) on the platform.
This way, itโs easy to determine if the post or Facebook status theyโre viewing is a recent one. And since Facebook allows timestamps unlike some other social media platforms that rather keep the recency of the content on the platform a mystery, users can easily determine the recency of other usersโ activity.
Facebook isnโt only a social media platform but also a marketing communication channel that helps businesses build their brand and market their products, hence, it does make sense why the platform is transparent with the activity of users. And since Facebook Messenger is an app that helps users manage their messages, being able to view the activity of other users to be able to inform yourself about their last activity and how to message them may come in handy, hence, the timestamp feature on the app does make a lot of sense too.
You can view any userโs past activity on Facebook Messenger via the green activity indicator that indicates the user is online or the timestamp next to the profile picture that shows the last time the user was online.
Can You Check If Someone Is Active On Messenger Without Being Friends?

Unfortunately, you wonโt be able to view if someone is active on your Facebook Messenger if youโre not friends with the person on Facebook. However, thereโs an exception as Facebook can allow you to check the activity of a user who isnโt your friend if youโve sent a message to them before and they replied. So if you want to see the activity of a user who isnโt your friend on Facebook, you need to have messaged them first before you can.
If the user is active, a green activity status indicator will be visible beneath their profile picture, and if they are not, youโll see the timestamp that indicates the last time the user was active. To view the activity status of these users, or any user, in fact, they must have the โActive Statusโ option enabled in their accountโs settings, same as you because youโll need to have this option enabled on your account to view other userโs activity status. If youโre not sure if you have the option enabled, you can go to your profile settings to enable it.
How To See If Someone Is Active On Messenger
There are various ways that you can determine if a user is active on Facebook Messenger. You can view this via your desktop or mobile phone and if you donโt want to use the Messenger app or website, you can use the built-in Messenger on any Facebook application since theyโre the same as the Messenger app. Iโll discuss the steps to do the above easily below so read on.
Via Mobile Phones Or Tablets
Step 1: Open The Facebook Messenger App
The Facebook Messenger application is the blue chat bubble icon with a white lightning bolt inside of it. Youโll find it on your deviceโs home screen or in your app drawer. You can also search for it using your phoneโs built-in search feature.
Step 2: Sign In
If youโre not signed in, enter your Facebook email, phone number, user name, and password to sign in. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process. If you are signed in, continue to the next step.
Step 3: Tap The Contacts Icon
The contact icon is the second icon at the bottom right corner of your screen. The icon looks like a bullet list or a tab with items. Click on it to view your contact.
Step 4: Tap The Active Bar
Tap the active bar near the top of your screen. Itโs found in the navigation bar that hosts โAllโ of your contacts and the โActiveโ contacts. This tab displays the list of each of your contacts who are currently active on the Facebook Messenger application. If a friend is online, youโll see a green circle (the green activity status indicator) beneath their profile image.
Via A Desktop Browserย

Step 1: Enter The Messenger Website
Input the Messenger website (https://www.Messenger.com) on your browserโs search bar. This will point your browser to Facebookโs official Messenger web app.
Step 2: Sign In To Your Facebook Account
If youโre already signed in prior, youโll be redirected to your Messenger homepage. If you havenโt, enter your Facebook email and password and click the blue โsign-inโ button. If the information entered is verified to be correct youโll be taken to your Facebook Messenger homepage.
Step 3: Click On Settings
Click on the account settings on your home screen. This is the blue gear icon located at the top left corner of your screen. Youโll be welcomed with a drop-down of options to choose from.
Step 4: Click On Active Contacts
Navigate the drop-down menu bar and click on โactive contactsโ. This is usually found at the top of the list. After clicking on it, youโll see a list of your Messenger contacts who are actively online.
Sometimes, you may only see your own name with a switch on the right side of your screen. This means youโll need to switch on your active status so youโll be able to see your other contacts that are currently active on the Messenger app. Once you toggle the switch on, all of your online contacts will now appear.
