How to Uninstall an App on Facebook

If you've ever installed an app on Facebook, you most likely want to know how to uninstall an app on Facebook. An app, or application, on Facebook can be anything from a game to a survey to a program to tally votes. It is different than a page or profile and requires you, the user, to install the app under your Facebook login. You can "like" a page (or just about anything on Facebook, including apps) but you have to choose to install apps.

Facebook app developers and owners will try to make it easy for you to install their Facebook app, because when you install an app you agree to the terms of service that are associated with that app. The app has to give you access to these terms of service and notify you that you are sharing information like your name, e-maill address, and sometimes your friend list, but sometimes they will try to slip that detail by you.

When you've had enough of random posts on your Timeline from apps that you did not even know that you installed and want to uninstall a Facebook app, it is very simple to do. Just follow the steps below.

1. Login to Facebook. All of your apps are tied directly to your Facebook account.
2. Click on "More" under the "Apps" section of your profile menu. To manage your apps, you do NOT need to go to the App Center. The App Center is where you can go to look up additional apps to install. The "More" button will take you to see all of the apps that you have installed.
3. Find the app on the list that you wish to uninstall.
4. Click on the small pencil icon to the left of the app you wish to uninstall.
5. Select "Remove App"
6. A window will pop up asking if you really wish to remove the app. Click Remove.
7. Facebook will remove the app. Once the app is uninstalled, a window will tell you that the app has been removed.

When you go to uninstall the Facebook app that you wanted to remove when you found this article, you might find a bunch of other apps that you never knew you installed. Of all of these apps, you "agreed" to install the app and "agreed" to share your personal information and sometimes even friends lists with the app developers.

The way that app developers and marketers get you to agree to their terms of service is to make it simple to play their games or use the apps that they develop. For example, take a look at the Farmville2 page to the right. If you click on the "Play Game" button, you are agreeing to Farmville2's terms of service and agreeing to share your name, e-mail address, and birthday. Also in Farmville2's terms of service, you are agreeing to allow them to post to your Facebook Timeline. You get to select which of your friends sees these posts, but most people just click the "Play Game" button without reading what they are agreeing to.

I'm not saying go out and uninstall all of your Facebook apps. Just be aware of which ones you are installing and what it means to you. Personally, I do not like a bunch of Facebook app games posting to my Timeline. I do play a lot of Facebook app games, but I've learned how to make it so they do not post to my Timeline or at least so that no one can see the automatic posts that they make.

According to Facebook, a lot of your information is publicly available anyway, so uninstalling Facebook apps isn't going to help in terms of keeping your name and gender private, but it might help you keep your Timeline full of pictures of your dog rather than posts about harvesting strawberries.