Facebook is one of the OG social networking platforms that has gone on to become a social media juggernaut, with multiple other platforms under its roster.
Regardless, it still holds a lot of importance as a stand-alone site, with over 2.9 billion active users.
Such a massive user base is no surprise considering Facebook provides us a platform to keep in touch with people, reconnect with old friends and meet new people all through its interactive interface.
Yet, no matter how many new features the site introduces every year, the best thing about Facebook is that it lets you choose the people you want to be friends with.
This gives you the opportunity to maintain a tight circle and only add people on Facebook whom you actually know.
However, Facebook might take pity on you and go out of its way to suggest new friends to add on the platform.
This can soon become annoying, leading to you wondering how to turn off friend suggestions on Facebook. Don’t worry, we have got you covered with this article!
While we understand that Facebook does this simply to push you towards adding more friends and meeting new people, most of the accounts it suggests are of people you may not know or just don’t wish to add.
Moreover, this feature can even be quite creepy for some people. But, today is your lucky day because there is, in fact, a way you can turn off the friend suggestions on the site.
While there isn’t a way you can entirely disable the suggestions on Facebook, you can still adjust your notifications so that you don’t get bombarded with friend recommendations all the time.
The accuracy that Facebook has when suggesting friends is rather surprising.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t check out the suggestions because the platform still manages to present to you a list of people you might be interested in being friends with.
However, the truth is, this feature can often be disturbing which is why several users are always looking for ways to disable it.
Facebook keeps on sending the users innumerable notifications, always recommending other random users, curated from data acquired from your device’s location or contacts.
If you are one such user who dislikes this feature, keep reading!
Article Contents
Why Does Facebook Have Friend Suggestions?
As a Facebook user, it’s quite normal to want to know how the whole Facebook “People you may know” feature works.
Oftentimes, the app somehow manages to give out recommendations that are just frighteningly precise, while other times they are completely off the mark.
Facebook has often been under fire, especially in recent times, for allegedly using users’ personal information to curate its suggestions and ads on the platform.
Users are always suspicious of whether the site is trying to snoop and acquire data- such a thought can be unsettling.
But, above everything else, the real reason why Facebook suggests friends to you is that the site is driven by user growth.
The platform has witnessed that adding more friends leads to a user using the app more and more, generating more revenue in the process.
While it’s true that many people keep coming back to Facebook in the hopes of meeting more people, what about the users that surf the platform occasionally for a particular reason and don’t need Facebook creeping them out with accurate friends recommendations?
How To Disable Friend Suggestions on FB?
In this section, we will show how to turn off friend suggestions on Facebook. Continue reading for step-by-step instructions:
Android, iPhone, or iPad
If you are an avid Facebook user and wish to know how to turn off friend suggestions on Facebook through your handheld device, follow the steps below.
The process is quite simple and you can modify the settings through the FB app itself.
Do note that once you change your settings, it’ll reflect on your account even when you open it using your desktop.
- Launch the Facebook app. Log in to your account if you are not logged in already.
- Next, click on the hamburger symbol (three horizontal lines) on your upper right corner, located underneath the messenger icon.
- Keep scrolling until you come across the section labeled Settings & Privacy. Tap on it and then navigate to Settings.
- Under settings, keep scrolling until you find the Notification Settings option. Tap on it and go over to the “People you may know” section.
- Once you click on that option, you will notice three categories titled Push, Email, and SMS with a toggle beside each of them. You can switch off the toggle to disable each of them individually. Otherwise, you can just switch off the toggle beside the option titled “Allow notifications on Facebook”.
- This disables all the notifications related to the Friend Suggestions on Facebook. Do note that once you turn off the toggle, you will get a prompt asking to confirm that you wish not to receive notifications regarding friends recommendations. Tap on “Turn Off” in order to confirm.
Windows and Mac
If you are more comfortable using your Facebook account from your desktop, don’t worry because the process of how to turn off friend suggestions on Facebook is equally easy when on your Windows or Mac.
- First, open the Facebook website using your preferred browser and log in to your account if you haven’t done that already.
- Next, click on the pointed down arrow symbol on your upper right-hand side. After that, tap on Settings and Privacy.
- Under the Settings and Privacy menu, tap on settings, which will take you to a new page.
- On your left-hand side, scroll down until you find the “Notifications” option.
- Upon clicking it, you will come across several options out of which you have to click on the “People you may know” section.
- Once you click on that option, you will notice three categories titled Push, Email, and SMS with a toggle beside each of them. You can switch off the toggle to disable each of them individually. Otherwise, you can just switch off the toggle beside the option titled “Allow notifications on Facebook”.
- This disables all the notifications related to the Friend Suggestions on Facebook. Do note that once you turn off the toggle, you will get a prompt asking to confirm that you wish not to receive notifications regarding friends recommendations. Tap on “Turn Off” in order to confirm.
This is how you can disable your friends recommendations on Facebook using your handheld device or your PC.
The process is relatively easy both ways and should work in stopping Facebook from bothering you by sending countless notifications regarding accounts you can add as friends.
What Helps Facebook in Suggesting Friends?
As already mentioned, Facebook curates its list of suggested friends with the help of data acquired from your contacts, location, and mutual friends.
In order to make sure that you don’t receive as many accurate suggested friends, that is, if you don’t want Facebook snooping into your personal information, you can do a few things- try not to sync your phone contacts with your Facebook account (doing so let’s Facebook suggest you Facebook friends who use the phone numbers on your contact list) and try not to turn on the location when using the Facebook app (this lets Facebook know of your region (city or town) and suggest people who belong from the same region).
Is There Any Other Way Facebook Might Suggest Friends?
While you can take a few measures to make sure that Facebook doesn’t get as much information to arrange a precise selection of Facebook accounts you could be friends with, the platform still manages to do so using an array of other factors.
It keeps track of places you have been to and suggests you friends based on that and it keeps track of your interests and suggests you accounts who share the same interests as you.
Moreover, it also keeps track of the events that you have attended and suggests you friends who have gone to the same events.
Can My Account Be Suggested To Other People?
Although you can restrict Facebook from suggesting you friends, it doesn’t stop your account from being suggested to other people on Facebook.
If you wish not to be suggested to other people, you can go to Settings and Privacy and then to Settings.
Under, go to Privacy where you will find a section labeled “How people can find and contact you”. Adjust the settings as it pleases you.
Does Searching For Someone on Facebook Leads To Being Suggested As A Friend To That Account?
It is difficult to say whether Facebook suggests your account to people whom you search for on the platform.
While we are well aware that Facebook takes into consideration all your account activities including your search history, no official report has been issued to suggest that FB uses your search history to suggest you to other people.
Final Thoughts
In this article, we have explained how to turn off friend suggestions on Facebook.
Hopefully, this helps you in restricting Facebook from bombarding you with notifications of whom you should add as friends.
