How to Turn Off Friend Suggestions on Facebook App

With so many people using Facebook, it’s easy to reconnect with friends and family. You may even be able to find your childhood friend that you haven’t spoken to in 20 years. This can greatly expand your circle of support and give you people to talk to.

However, one of the great things about Facebook is that you get to decide who you are friends with. If you want to keep that circle small, you have that option.

Although, at times, Facebook may feel sorry for you and think that you don’t have enough people on your friend list. When that happens, they may make some suggestions, which may have you wondering how to turn off friend suggestions on Facebook app.

While Facebook’s intentions are in the right place, oftentimes, the people they suggest as your friends may not be anyone you know or have a desire to connect with. You might also think that the feature is creepy. Thankfully, there is a way to stop Facebook friend suggestion notifications.

Tip #1

Facebook’s goal is to ensure you are connected to as many people as possible, and with so many users, it’s super easy to get lost in the mix. By suggesting friends, they are hoping to make it easier for you to find people to connect with. However, since some people don’t appreciate this, turning it off is quick and easy.

How Suggested Friends on Facebook Works

Not only might you be wondering how to turn off Facebook’s suggested friends, but you might also be curious as to how it works. There may be times when their suggestions are scarily accurate like they might be stalking you, and others when they are way off base.

Facebook’s use of personal information has come under scrutiny lately, and you might be worried that they are using this to delve into your personal life and dredge up information from your past. This can be disconcerting.

How the process works seems a bit confusing. On the Facebook help page, they claim that when it comes to the friend suggestions, some of the tools they use include:

People who are friends with people you already know
People who might be associated with your profile information, including the schools you’ve attended or where you work
People who share the same activities or interests you do, which is determined by the groups you join or the photos you are tagged in
People suggested from contacts you or one of your friends uploaded to Messenger or Facebook

Supposedly, for a brief amount of time, Facebook also used location data to suggest friends who were in the same town or geographic area. Many people found this incredibly disconcerting, and the company claims they have backed off this practice. Whether or not that’s true is hard to determine.

Facebook changes its practices all the time without letting users know. Using location data to suggest friends may not be in use now, but they may decide to try it again in the future. Or they may develop new ways to suggest friends.

No matter what Facebook does, if you decide that you don’t want to see a list of people they think you should be friends with, there are ways to turn it off.

How to Turn Off Friend Suggestions on Facebook App

Facebook can be accessed from a variety of different devices, including laptops, desktops, tablets, and your phone. If you happen to be on your phone when asking how to turn off friend suggestions on Facebook app, here are the steps you’ll need to follow:

Step 1: Open the App

The first thing you’ll need to do when going through the steps to stop Facebook friend suggestion notifications is to open the app on your phone.

Look for the blue circle with a white “f” and click on it.

If you aren’t already logged in to your account, you will be prompted to type in your username and password.

Step 2: Navigate to Settings

Once you have gained access to your Facebook account, you’ll then need to get into the Settings menu.

To do this, click on the three horizontal lines in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

When the new menu appears, look for “Settings & Privacy.” This is usually near the bottom of the page and has a gear icon next to it.

Once you’ve found it, click on it.

Another list will open, and you’ll want to choose “Settings” from the options.

Step 3: Go to Notifications

Clicking on “Settings” will open another screen with more options. Under the Notifications heading, look for and click on “Notification Settings.”

Step 4: Click on People You May Know

Yet another list of options will appear, and you’ll need to look for and click on “People You May Know.”

When wondering how to turn off friend suggestions on Facebook app, once this list of options appears, you can choose how and where you receive new friend suggestions. If you don’t want to see them at all, you’ll need to click the toggle to turn it off.

After completing these steps, you should no longer have to worry about seeing friend suggestions from Facebook. However, if you decide you want to search for people, you still have that ability.

How to Turn Off Friend Suggestions on Facebook Using a Computer

In addition to asking how to turn off friend suggestions on Facebook app, you might also be wondering how to turn these suggestions off using your computer. Here’s how you’ll accomplish this task:

Step 1: Log in to Your Account

The first thing you’ll need to do when learning how to stop getting friend suggestions is to log in to your account. Using whatever browser you prefer, go to Facebook’s homepage and type in your credentials.

Step 2: Open the Settings Menu

Once you have gained access to your account, you’ll then need to open the Settings menu. This can be found by clicking on the drop-down arrow in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

When the list appears, look for and click on “Settings & Privacy.”

From that list, click “Settings.”

Step 3: Choose Notifications

A new list of options will appear on the left-hand side of your screen, and you’ll want to click “Notifications.”

In the middle of your screen, you’ll see a set of options, including “People You May Know.”

Click on this.

Step 4: Turn Off Notifications

After gaining access to the “People You May Know” menu, click the toggle switches to turn off suggestions.

Once you’ve done that, you should no longer receive notifications from Facebook about friends.

How to Stop Facebook from Adding You to Suggested Friends

In addition to not seeing suggested friends, you might also be wondering how to prevent your profile from showing up on other people’s pages as a suggested friend. Here are the steps you’ll need to take to stop Facebook from suggesting you as a friend to other people:

Step 1: Access Your Account

Whether you are using your mobile phone or a computer, the first thing you’ll need to do is access your Facebook account.

Step 2: Go to Settings

Once you’ve accessed your account, you’ll then need to go to the Settings menu. This can be found under the “Settings & Privacy” option.

On your phone, you access this by clicking on the three horizontal lines in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

On your computer, you’ll click on the down-arrow in the upper right-hand corner of your screen.

Step 3: Click on Privacy

After gaining access to the Settings menu, you’ll want to click on “Privacy.”

Step 4: Change Your Privacy Options

When the new options appear, look for “How people can find and contact you.”

A list of options will appear, and you’ll need to decide who has access to each one. To change the settings, click on the blue “Edit” link and choose which option works best for you.

Under the “Who can send me friend requests” option, if you change this selection to “Friends of friends,” this will limit the ability of people outside of your friends’ circle to add you to their friend’s list. This should also prevent you from appearing on the list of friends suggested to others by Facebook.

If you find yourself wondering how to prevent your friends from being suggested to others, then you’ll need to limit access to your friend list. This may reduce the chances of that occurring, but you and your friends will still appear on other friends’ lists, and they may not have limited viewing access.

Tip #2

Even though Facebook claims they don’t use your location to suggest friends, if you prefer to be safe rather than sorry, you might consider disabling Facebook’s ability to detect your location. This can be found under “Settings & Privacy,” so while you’re in there for other things, you can turn off location access quickly and easily.

Only Seeing the People You Want to See

Whether you find the friend suggestions creepy or not useful, turning them off can give you peace of mind and some control over what you see on your Facebook page. If you’re wondering how to turn off friend suggestions on Facebook app, these are the steps you’ll need to undertake: