How-To

How to Block Reels on Facebook

By Brian Burgess

Updated December 5, 2023

Viewing Reels occasionally is fine. But seeing them in your Facebook feed constantly gets annoying. Here’s how to block Reels on Facebook.

Reels are short-form videos that people post to express themselves, make clever observations, and more. However, if you aren’t a fan of seeing Reels in your Facebook timeline, you might be wondering how to block Reels on Facebook.

While you can’t completely hide or “block” Reels on Facebook, there are specific steps you can take to see less of them and make them less annoying. Facebook has ways to reduce the rate of Reels in your feed, but disabling the feature entirely isn’t yet available.

So, in this guide, we’ll show you how to minimize the number of Reels you see in your timeline and stop them from automatically playing.

How to Remove Reels on Facebook

You can use the following steps if you want to see fewer Reels on your mobile or desktop timeline.

1. Launch Facebook and sign in if you aren’t already.
2. Scroll down your feed until you find the Reels section — tap the three-dot menu button.
3. Select the Hide option when the menu appears.
4. Moving forward, you will see far fewer Reels in your feed.

How to Limit Who Sees Your Reels

Another way to see fewer Reels is by hiding your own on Facebook. This option can prevent others from sending response videos back to you.

1. Open Facebook and open Settings.
2. Swipe down the menu and select Reels from the menu.
3. Toggle off the Allow others to share your reels to their stories switch and select the Reels default audience dropdown menu.
4. Set the Reels default audience to Friends or Friends except and choose the friends you want to hide them from.

How to Prevent Reels from Playing Automatically

You might not have a problem with the short-form videos in your feed but find them automatically playing to be an annoyance. Stopping them from auto-playing might be precisely what you prefer.

How To Stop Reels from Automatically Playing on Desktop

1. Sign into your Facebook account, click your profile icon, and open Settings.
2. Click Videos from the left panel.
3. Under Video Settings, change the Auto-Play Videos dropdown menu to the Off position.

How to Stop Reels from Automatically Playing on Mobile

It’s important to mention that the settings aren’t synced between desktop and mobile, so you also need to turn off auto-play videos on your phone or tablet.

1. Launch the Facebook app and sign in.
2. Select the menu button and open Settings.
3. Select Media from the Settings & privacy menu.
4. Under the Autoplay section, check the Never Autoplay Videos option on the menu.

How to Stop Seeing Reels from Specific People

If you don’t want to see Reels from a specific person, you can block the user on Facebook. Once you block the user, you won’t see any of their posts, let alone their Reels.

1. Find the person from whom you want to block Reels in your timeline.
2. Click the three-dot button at the top and select the option to Block the profile from the menu that appears.

Seeing Fewer Reels on Facebook

Since Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, integrate both platforms into your experience, hiding Reels on Facebook takes a bit of work. Unfortunately, you can’t toggle off a simple switch to stop seeing the videos.

However, if you are determined, you can see fewer Reels in your Facebook feed using the above steps. The surest way to block Reels on Facebook (and all other content) is to block the person outright. But if you want to see fewer Reels, you can follow the steps above and stop them from automatically playing.