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 you’re a user of the Messenger app, you’ll want to know which of your contacts are active, leading us to ask if it’s possible to view active contacts on Messenger.

It’s 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 you’d on Facebook.

The Messenger app is an easy platform to operate and it’s easy to view the activity of other users on the app. Hence, in this article, I’ll 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 what’s on their minds, and also contact their loved ones if you’re a lover of Facebook, you’d definitely have come across or used the Messenger app. 

While using this app, if you’ve 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 they’re 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 it’s 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 Messenger’s 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 recipient’s 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, it’s easy to determine if the post or Facebook status they’re 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 users’ activity.

Facebook isn’t 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 user’s 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 won’t be able to view if someone is active on your Facebook Messenger if you’re not friends with the person on Facebook. However, there’s an exception as Facebook can allow you to check the activity of a user who isn’t your friend if you’ve sent a message to them before and they replied. So if you want to see the activity of a user who isn’t 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, you’ll 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 “Active Status” option enabled in their account’s settings, same as you because you’ll need to have this option enabled on your account to view other user’s activity status. If you’re 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 don’t want to use the Messenger app or website, you can use the built-in Messenger on any Facebook application since they’re the same as the Messenger app. I’ll 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. You’ll find it on your device’s home screen or in your app drawer. You can also search for it using your phone’s built-in search feature. 

Step 2: Sign In

If you’re 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. It’s found in the navigation bar that hosts “All” of your contacts and the “Active” 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, you’ll see a green circle (the green activity status indicator) beneath their profile image. 

Via A Desktop Browser 

Step 1: Enter The Messenger Website 

Input the Messenger website (https://www.Messenger.com) on your browser’s search bar. This will point your browser to Facebook’s official Messenger web app.

Step 2: Sign In To Your Facebook Account

If you’re already signed in prior, you’ll be redirected to your Messenger homepage. If you haven’t, enter your Facebook email and password and click the blue “sign-in” button. If the information entered is verified to be correct you’ll 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. You’ll 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 “active contacts”. This is usually found at the top of the list. After clicking on it, you’ll 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 you’ll need to switch on your active status so you’ll 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.