Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world. With over 2.7 billion users worldwide, Facebook sits at the top of all the social media giants out there.
It offers many exciting features, making the platform addictive.
You can connect with your friends, make new ones, run your business through a Facebook page, use Facebook shops, play games and more.
With Facebook, the possibilities are endless.
But this doesn’t mean it’s perfect.
This is because Facebook has some annoying features that people don’t like.
One of them is the friend suggestion feature.
You might’ve seen this message “You have a new friend suggestion”.
Well, Facebook intends to find you the most relevant connections based on your current Friend list, but many people find this feature simply annoying.
What if it keeps suggesting to you someone who you want to ignore or never become friends with?
People have choices, and they are selective of their friends.
Hence, if you find this feature annoying, read this article.
Today, we’ll discuss the “suggested Friends feature” and how you can turn it off.
What’s Going on with These Friend Suggestions with Facebook?
Well, every platform wants to grow.
They observe the initial user behaviour and, based on the results, introduce new features to grow the number of users and meaningful interactions on the platform.
Facebook in the early days observed that people who were adding seven friends over 10 days came back to add more and use the platform.
Hence, Facebook observes your activity on the platform, utilises your data and suggests people you are likely to add to your Friend list.
They do this through the “Friends suggestion” feature.
Turning Off Friend Suggestions for Facebook
Now, let’s discuss how you can turn off “Friend Suggestions” on Facebook.
You can do this by either using the mobile application or the Facebook.com website. We’ll go through a step-by-step process to make it simple.
Through a Facebook App for Mobile (iPhone and Android)
- Launch the application and click on the hamburger icon.
- Now, select Settings > Notifications.
- Here, choose “People you might know,”
- All you need to do is turn off the option saying “Allow notifications on Facebook”.
- Finally, confirm and exit the application.
Through the Facebook Site
- Go to Facebook.com and log in to your account.
- Navigate to the top-right corner and open the notification’s panel by clicking on the bell icon.
- Click on the three-dots icon and select Notifications Settings.
- Find and select “People you may know,” and turn off “Allow notifications on Facebook.”
This way, you can turn the “Friend Suggestions” feature off on your mobile application or usi
ng the official website.
Now, you won’t receive the annoying suggestions.
How is Facebook Deciding Who to Suggest?
Facebook suggests Friends based on your current Friend list. The algorithm also considers mutual friends, locations and your contacts to find the best connections.
How is Facebook Recommending Friends Without Any Friends that are Mutual?
Facebook considers many factors to suggest to your people you are most likely to add to your Friend list.
They analyse your current locations, interests, places you have visited, and more to suggest you people.
How to Prevent Facebook Recommending My Profile to Other People?
Turning off the “Friend Suggestions” feature doesn’t stop Facebook from suggesting you to other people.
So, how can you stop this?
You can do this by opening your “Privacy Settings” on the application or the website.
There, you will find the setting saying “Who can see the people, Pages, and lists you follow?”. Change it to “Only me.”
Then, change the following settings:
- “Who can see your friend lists,” to “Only me,”
- “Who can send you friend requests,” to “Friends of friends,”
Finally, turn off public visibility in your search engines and location service.
This will stop Facebook from suggesting your name to other users.
If You Search for Someone on Facebook, Will You Show up As a Suggested Friend?
Facebook keeps your search history and probably uses it to suggest to your friends.
Say, you searched for someone on the platform and later saw that person under the “Friend suggestions”.
Well, this happens because Facebook thinks your interests match with that person and suggesting them would trigger you to add them to your friend list or they might add you.
Although there is no concrete proof proposing Facebook uses such a technique, but many users have reported such situations.
How to Turn Off Friend Suggestions for Facebook: Final Thoughts
There you have it. Now, you know all about the “Friend Suggestions” feature from Facebook, how Facebook recommends friends and how you can disable this feature.
You also know how to stop Facebook from suggesting your name to other users.
