How to appear offline on Xbox One: Hide your gameplay and play in secret

Sometimes you just need to know how to appear offline on Xbox One. Why? Well, there are lots of reasons, but most of them involve avoiding people.

This is true whether you need your partner to believe you're ill in bed, your friends to leave you alone to play a game by yourself, or if you simply can't be bothered to deal with your cousin asking you to play Minecraft. Though, you should really play Minecraft with them.

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So, if you're doing your best to hide from the digital world, then it's worth knowing how to appear offline on Xbox One.

That, dear friends, is where we come in, let us teach you the ways of the digital Ninja. No, not that one.

How to appear offline on Xbox One

You'll be happy to know that it's pretty easy to appear offline on Xbox One. This is how you do it, though it's worth noting that if you want to be truly stealthy, then you should do this ahead of time instead.

• Sign into your account and hit the Xbox Home button and scroll to the left
• Select your profile image
• Select Appear Offline
• Laugh maniacally at the fools who believe you're not playing on your Xbox One when actually you are

The last step is optional, but we recommend it as a nice way to complete the experience.

READ MORE: PS4 vs Xbox One comparison

Does appearing offline affect anything?

If you choose to appear offline on Xbox One then all that will happen is that your friends won't know that you're online.

You'll still be able to go online and play games, you just won't send any alerts that you're doing so.

It's worth noting that individual games may still dob you in to anybody else playing them, so you'll have to plan accordingly if you want to play Halo, but not with your mates.

READ MORE: How to appear offline on Steam