Are you tired of Facebook’s constant nudges about people they think you may know? Facebook employs algorithms that analyze your engagement patterns, your uploaded contact lists, and your existing friends to suggest potential new connections. These suggestions appear in your “People You May Know” section, which can be found in your News Feed or under the Friends tab.
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While Facebook’s goal is to encourage more connections, increasing users’ likelihood of using the platform, this feature might seem annoying if you are not interested in expanding your friend list.
How to temporarily hide the “People You May Know” feature on Facebook
Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t offer an option to disable the “People You May Know” feature permanently. However, you can temporarily hide it, which prevents it from appearing in your News Feed for some time. Follow these steps to hide the “People You May Know” feature on Facebook.
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How to disable ‘People You May Know’ notifications on the Facebook app
- Open the Facebook app
- Tap the three horizontal lines in the bottom right corner
- Scroll down to find and tap Settings & Privacy
- Tap Settings
- Click Notifications
- Look for ‘People You May Know’ and toggle off the ‘Allow Notifications on Facebook’ option.
- Confirm your choice by clicking Turn Off.
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How to disable ‘People You May Know’ notifications on Facebook on your Computer
Now, let’s sort out those notifications on your computer:
- Log into your Facebook account
- Click on your profile picture in the top right corner
- Click on Settings & Privacy
- Then tap Settings
- Scroll to Notifications and click on it
- Find People You May Know and toggle it off
- Toggling off ‘Allow Notifications on Facebook’ will turn off all notification forms, including push notifications, emails, and text messages.
While Facebook hasn’t provided a specific timeframe for how long the feature will remain hidden, it typically stays out of sight for a substantial period before reappearing.
Some of our readers have shared that the above disables notifications for Facebook’s “People You May Know” feature, but doesn’t prevent the suggestions from appearing within the platform. Facebook doesn’t offer an option to completely disable these suggestions. However, users can manage certain settings to reduce their visibility:
Adjust your Privacy Settings to reduce Friend Suggestions
Facebook generates these suggestions based on your personal data, including your phone number and email address. You can limit how people find you to reduce your visibility in their suggestions.
Restrict Who Can Look You Up
- Go to Facebook’s Privacy Settings.
- Find Who can look you up using the email address you provided? and set it to Friends or Only Me.
- Do the same for Who can look you up using the phone number you provided?
- Turn off Allow search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile to further limit exposure.
This makes it harder for Facebook to connect you with strangers based on your contact information.
Change your Friend Request settings
By restricting who can send you friend requests, you can prevent random connection attempts from appearing in your feed.
- Go to Facebook’s Friend Request Settings.
- Under Who can send you friend requests?, select Friends of friends instead of Everyone.
This limits suggestions to mutual connections rather than completely unrelated people.
Remove Imported Contacts (Optional)
If you’ve ever allowed Facebook to access your contacts, it may be using that data for friend suggestions.
- Go to Facebook’s Manage Contacts Page.
- If you see a list of imported contacts, select Delete all contacts to remove them from Facebook’s database.
This prevents Facebook from using your phone’s contact list for suggestions.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
With these simple steps, you can enjoy a Facebook experience without the interruption of unsolicited suggestions. It’s all about personalizing your social media to suit your preferences and comfort.
How do you feel about social media platforms using algorithms to suggest connections? Let us know in the comments below.
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