Can facebook friends see that your online when your chat is offline?

[Lauren]

Lately I have been receiving facebook chat messages from friends 'as if' I am available to chat, but my chat is offline. Why? Can they see that I am online even though my chat is off? Is there a way to completely hide yourself so nobody knows when your using facebook?

[Rudy]

no they can t

[Hockey ball]

must be just by chance. if your chat is off, no one knows youre on.

[Konark Paul]

no they can't...... but if you update something or comment somewhere, they can see that and figure out that u are actually online .

[Tim]

Nobody can find out that you're online. But the new Facebook chat allows you to send offline messages.
When you make yourself "offline/unavailable" no one will know that you are online unless you post something on your profile.

[E]

The same happens to me as well with the recent introduction of FB chat client update. My chat is set to offline but when I first login to Facebook , for a very short amount of time I appear online on my friends lists and then switch back to offline. We tested this weird bug after we put two laptops next to each other and logged in with different accounts... If some of your friends happen to send you a message right at that moment, when Facebook makes you online, then you receive a message as if you are online...

As a computer scientist, I believe the reason for this bug is that Facebook set the default chat option to online so that for a very short amount of time until Facebook loads your privacy settings and realizes that your chat settings are offline, it allows others to see you as online...

Personally I find it very annoying but I couldn't find any solutions yet.

[Ravar5]

if you set yourself to offline, your friends can't see you. However if they msg you, it will show in your inbox.

If you keep messaging you more than 2-3 times, it will show in the normal chat window, it's a glitch in facebook itself.

use a facebook messenger app like http://www.parley.im. It's easier to use.