Protrusive nanostructures were fabricated with the proposed friction-induced selective etching method, which involves the combined techniques of scanning with an atomic force microscopy diamond probe and selective etching in HF solution. Various patterns, including slope and hierarchical stages, were produced by programming the loading mode and scanning traces. The height of such nanostructures increased as the scan load and number of scan cycles increased. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis indicated that the mechanism of the friction-induced selective etching should be attributed to the formation of AlF₃ on the fabrication area during HF etching. Given that the friction-induced selective etching could be completed in several seconds without any templates, the proposed method may provide high efficiency and serve as a convenient nanofabrication technique for glass.