How to Disable Facebook Messenger Chat Head Icons on Android

You know what’s cool? Instant messaging with friends, family, and colleagues. You know what’s annoying? Having their face float above everything else on your phone. And that’s exactly how it is with Facebook Messenger—here’s how to turn off the floating face icons on Android.

The feature itself is called “Chat Heads,” and it seems like a good idea—hell, some people may even like them. That’s cool! We like that you like them. But if you find yourself in the “con’t like it” camp and just want to get rid of them, we have you covered. There are two ways you can go about this: if you just want to temporarily get rid of the heads floating around on your screen, you can dismiss them. But if you never want to see another Chat Head as long as you live, then you can completely disable them.

Let’s start with the latter, because it just makes sense.

How to Disable Facebook Messenger’s Chat Heads

You’ll disable Chat Heads from the main Messenger window. You can get there by just opening the Messenger app or by tapping any open Chat Head (which takes you to Messenger).

In the Messenger app, see that little icon with your own pretty face up in the upper right corner? Tap that.

Scroll down until you see the “Chat Heads” entry, and then toggle that little slider off. Now, you can live that Chat Head-free life.

How to Dismiss Chat Heads

If all you’re looking to do is get rid of the Heads that are currently hanging around, no worries—that’s easy. Just grab it and sling it down to the X at the bottom. Like so:

Poof! It’s gone—at least until the next time that persons sends you a message.