Do you hate it when Facebook suggests friends you should follow? If you don’t like receiving these suggestions in your Email, SMS or as a notification, this article will help you to get rid of these notifications. You can find these in your News feed under ‘People you may know’ gallery. It can be annoying when these suggestions are people you have never met. When you think of the amount of notifications that pop up because of this feature, it becomes unsettling. Understandably.
If you ever wondered how to turn off people you may know from facebook, this article is for you. Some people wonder if ‘People you may know’ list is created from visiting someone’s Facebook page. Facebook in an official statement insists that it does not report to any Facebook user who is visiting their webpage, and also ensures that third-party applications cannot do the same. This article will discuss how this feature is created and how to hide people you may know on Facebook. Before you learn how to stop this feature, it’s good to know how Facebook works.
Facebook, now known as Meta, is a social networking web application and an online community that allows its users to customize their profiles with all kinds of information. They can search for other users and add them as friends, send private messages, add photos, videos and other file formats, create groups and more. If you own a brand or business, Facebook is a great place for you to market yourself so you can reach new customers online, by using advertisements. You can also create an event online and have people register to attend events. You can create pages and even fundraisers.
Facebook started in 2004 and back then you had to be in college and have a college email address to sign up. It expanded so that others can sign up and as of today it has almost 3 billion active users. As Facebook grew, they bought other social media platforms such as Instagram and Whatsapp. Facebook has a mobile app for Android and iOS users so whatever you do on facebook.com on your computer you can do on your smartphone, including how to turn off people you may know on facebook.
After creating your Facebook profile, the first step is to edit your profile by adding a profile picture, adding details about your personal life like family members and relationship status, your employment information, etc. The next thing to do is to find friends. On the left side of the page you will see the ‘Find Friends’ button. This takes you to a tab where you can see all the people that Facebook has recommended that you know in real life, and also public figures too, so that you can send them a friend request. Friends that have private profiles have to approve your friend request before you can follow them, except for public figures, where you can follow them without them having to approve you.
Facebook has a lot of other features like Facebook Watch, where you can watch a lot of videos from other pages that you don’t follow. There is a Facebook Marketplace, where you can post things to sell and find things to buy. There are also Facebook Groups which you can be a part of, so if you are interested in certain topics you could find a lot of groups to join based on your interests. Some of the groups are public or private. Facebook also has rooms where you can video chat with friends and also Facebook Messenger which is where you can communicate with friends on your smart device.
How does Facebook recommend people you may know?
Facebook gives its users the ability to recommend friends and pages to one another. Whether you get friend suggestions as email invitations or you come across them as suggestions on the Facebook app or website, Facebook makes some really good connections for you. People you may know are based on mutual friends, work and education information, networks and groups that you are a part of, contacts you have imported and many other factors like algorithms. Sometimes, if you see a suggestion with nothing in common, bear in mind that some people have their friends’ lists set to private.
This means that suggestions you get who you have friends in common with, may not show you who these friends are. In the same vein, you may see suggestions that do not have any friends that you are friends with.
The people you may know feature does not use information like your current location, details from third-party applications or your search history to make friend suggestions. People on Facebook won’t know you have searched for them or visited their profile to create a suggestion. Facebook also does not select friends to show based on profiles you interact with over messages in the chat.
How to hide people you may know on Facebook – for smartphone
It is quite easy to stop people you may know from Facebook. If you are on Facebook on your mobile phone, the process is the same for both Android and iOs devices. First thing is to make sure you are connected to the internet and then you open the Facebook app. Now follow these steps below.
Step 1: Locate the three lines at the bottom right side of the screen. On Android devices, this might be at the top right corner of the screen.
Step 2: Once you tap on it scroll down to find Settings and Privacy.
Step 3: Tap on it and then Tap on Settings.
Step 4: Scroll down the Settings menu and locate the Notifications section.
Step 5: Tap on Notification settings
Step 6: Scroll down on the Notification settings menu and find People you may know.
Step 7: Tap on it and then you can toggle off Allow Notifications on Facebook.
Step 8: You can choose where you would still like to receive these notifications. But you must leave the Toggle on for Step 6 above.
Step 9: If you want to hide notifications only on the app then toggle off Push and leave the toggle on for Email and SMS.
Step 10: Or if you want to hide people you may know on Email and SMS but still receive these notifications on your Facebook app, then leave the toggle on for Push and turn off the ones for Email and SMS. Otherwise, turn off all notifications at Step 7.
Once you have done these you will no longer see People you may know.
How to get rid of people you may know on Facebook – for Desktop PC.
If you are using Facebook on a PC, you can also get rid of people you may know. Here are the steps to get rid of this feature.
Step 1: After logging in, click on the arrow facing downwards on the top right.
Step 2: Click on Settings & Privacy.
Step 3: Click on Settings and then on the left panel, select Notifications.
Step 4: Scroll down to find People you may know.
Step 5: Click on it and turn off Allow Notifications on Facebook if you want to stop all notifications including Emails and SMS.
Step 6: Leave the button on if you still want to receive notifications on either Email, SMS and Push. Select each toggle you wish to hide or leave on.
It is now easier to stop “the people you may know” notifications on Facebook. If you wish to stop these alerts, all you have to do is to follow the steps above for Android, IOs and PC devices.