Short answer: tap the Online Status toggle at the top of your Friend List to switch yourself offline. It's opt-in on both sides - friends only see your green dot if they've also switched themselves online. Going offline hides that dot, but you can still receive Remote Raid Invites, there's no way to hide it from just one friend, and child accounts never show as online at all.
Trainer school
How do you hide your online status from friends in Pokémon GO?
If you've noticed a green dot next to your Trainer image and wondered who can see it or how to turn it off, the short version is: you're already in control of it, and most players never touch the toggle at all.
How to turn it off
Open your Friend List and tap your own Trainer image at the top. That's the entire control - there's no separate menu buried in Settings. Tapping again switches you back online. Niantic's Online Status help page describes this as the one and only way to change it.
What going offline actually hides - and doesn't
- It hides your green dot from friends. The dot normally appears next to your Trainer Profile image on the Map View, above your Friend List on your own profile, and at the top of your Friend List itself. Switch to offline and none of those show you as active.
- It's mutual, not automatic. You only ever see a friend's dot if they've also manually switched themselves online - and they only see yours under the same condition. There's no background "last active" tracking behind it; it's purely a toggle both sides have to flip.
- There's no per-friend setting. The toggle is account-wide. You can't stay visible to a raid group while hiding from everyone else - it's all friends or none.
- Offline doesn't block Remote Raid Invites. Niantic's help page is explicit that "you may still be able to receive Remote Raid Invites even if your Online Status is set to Offline," so going offline is about hiding presence, not blocking contact.
- Child accounts never show as online, even if social permissions are granted through the Niantic Kids Parent Portal - see our guide on trainer codes and kids for more on what's restricted for younger players.
- It's per-game, not per-device. If you play more than one Niantic game on the same phone, your online status only shows up in the game you're actively playing in - going offline in Pokémon GO doesn't touch your status in another Niantic title.
Two more privacy toggles while you're in there
Niantic's separate Manage Your Privacy help page documents two related controls, both in your Niantic Profile settings rather than the Friend List:
- "Let my Friends see info about the last time I played Niantic Games" - turn this off to stop friends from seeing when you last opened any Niantic app.
- "Let my Friends see my usernames from all Niantic Games" - turn this off to stop friends from seeing your other Niantic account names.
Both are separate from the Online Status dot and don't need to match it - you can go offline and still leave either of these on, or vice versa.
Want more trainers to actually use that Friend List with? Grab a fresh, unused friend code with one tap - codes are sorted by country, and you can browse by country if you're after a specific region.
FAQ
Does turning my status off also stop friends from seeing when I last played? No - that's a separate toggle. Online Status is the green dot; "last time I played" is its own setting on the Manage Your Privacy page, described above.
Can I hide my status from one specific friend but not others? No - Online Status is a single account-wide switch. There's no documented way to show it selectively.
If I'm offline, can a friend still invite me to a raid? Yes - Niantic's help page says Remote Raid Invites can still reach you even while your status is set to Offline.
Does going offline affect my ability to find friends via the friend list search and sort tools? No - search and sort work the same regardless of your own or anyone else's online status. There's also no documented keyword to filter the list by who's currently online.
Will my friends know I switched my status off? Not directly - there's no notification when you toggle it. They simply won't see a green dot next to your name while you're set to offline.