Facebook is trying to take back 'teasing' actions

Technically, the 'poke' feature never really left Facebook.

The classic feature from Facebook's early days allowed users to get their friends' attention with a virtual nudge. While "poke" has long been discontinued, the company has recently seen a surge in its use among younger users, prompting it to make it a more central part of the Facebook experience.

Users can now 'poke' their friends from a new, dedicated button directly on their Facebook profile, which will notify the recipient of the 'poke' via a notification. Additionally, Facebook users can see who has poked them and find friends to 'poke' at facebook.com/pokes. On this page, users will be able to track their 'poke count' with their friends, which will increase each time they poke each other. They can also ignore 'pokes' if they don't want to respond.

The poke tracking feature is largely designed to appeal to younger users who have grown up with the built-in gaming elements of social media apps like Snapchat and TikTok. These features ostensibly help friends keep track of who they message the most, but Streaks have drawn scrutiny from regulators and even led to lawsuits for their addictive nature, which has left kids hooked on the apps.

By highlighting poke counts and making pokes more prominent on Facebook, Meta wants to create a similar interaction mechanic. As users increase their poke count with friends, different icons will appear next to that friend's name, such as a fire emoji or "100," among others.

This isn't the first time in recent months that Facebook has tried to restore the poke feature. In March 2024, the company said it was making it easier for users to find poke pages through search and would make it easier to poke friends after searching. These small changes led to a 13-fold increase in poke usage in the month after the change, Meta said at the time.

As for why you might want to poke someone, that's up to the user. Facebook has never explained the purpose of poking, leaving users free to interpret. A poke can be a way to get attention, flirt, or simply annoy someone, depending on the user's intention.

Poke counts may never be as popular as streaks, but the addition of the feature is clearly a sign that Meta is looking to increase engagement on Facebook .

According to research by Jon Haidt, author of the book 'The Anxious Generation', which focuses on the potential harm of social media on children's brain development, Snap has known about the habit-forming nature of streaks for years. A paper he co-published with Zach Rausch, a senior research scientist at NYU Stern, includes excerpts from internal documents showing Snap employees discussing the popularity of streaks and their effectiveness in driving engagement.

While Facebook remains Meta's main source of revenue, fueling long-term investments in areas like AI and metaverse projects, the company has long been criticized for failing to appeal to younger users — a demographic that's been on the decline, especially in the U.S. The company has tried to win back the teen market with a variety of initiatives, including the short-lived college-only Facebook Campus feature that shut down in 2022 and, more recently, a Gen Z-focused redesign.

Lesley Montoya

Update 08 September 2025