While social gaming is huge these days, sometimes you just want to play alone. If you have a large friends list on Xbox Live, you probably know the annoyance of receiving game invites while you're playing a single-player game or watching movies.
Thankfully, your Xbox lets you appear offline. This prevents friends from knowing that you're active online, while still letting you enjoy the benefits of being connected.
How to Appear Offline on Xbox One
- Press the Xbox button to open the Home menu.
- Select the far-left icon on the top row showing your user profile picture.
- Under the Sign in text, select your Xbox username and picture.
- You'll open a new menu with several profile options. Select Appear offline.
- Below your username, you'll see an Appearing offline message to confirm.
To appear online again, navigate back to this screen and select Appear online.
If you're worried that someone will see you online for a brief moment before you can complete the above steps, you can set yourself offline through the Xbox app for Windows 10:
- Open the Xbox app on Windows 10.
- On the left sidebar, click your user icon.
- Click the Appear offline button to set yourself offline.
While nobody can see what you're playing when you appear offline, remember that people will know you're online if you join their party or game. When you go offline, your account will stay that way until you manually go back online.
Thus you don't have to worry about setting yourself online every time, but don't forget to change it when you're done playing in stealth mode! Appearing offline makes it harder for friends to invite you to games.
Why do you appear offline on Xbox? Do you have friends that invite you too often? Tell us in the comments!
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