How to turn friend suggestions ("People you may know") on Facebook off?

27 Jul, 2021

Facebook is a social networking website that allows you to interact with and share information with your family and friends.

Originally Facebook's website and app were designed for college students. However, it is now actively used by over 1 billion users, thanks to its unique features.

The platform is used to socialize and search for your friends. Its "Suggested Friends" or "Friend Suggestions" feature connects people with relatives, long-lost friends, and acquaintances made during travel. But the "People You May Know" feature is not suitable for all the users. In fact, many find its notifications and suggestions pestering or bothersome.

If you are reading this article, then it is safe to assume that you dislike receiving unnecessary notifications from Facebook. So, you would like to get rid of them. Facebook's browser and the app use your location to provide you with a list of people that you could send a friend request.

If you do not want to continue to have friend suggestions on Facebook, then the next section of this article is for you. Follow the steps mentioned in it, and you'll disable Facebook's friends' suggestion list in no time!

So, how to stop the annoying Friend Suggestions on Facebook?

The steps to stop or disable the suggested friends' list slightly differ between the Facebook phone app and the Facebook website. This section includes the steps for disabling the "People You May Know" list for your phone app and website separately.

Disabling Facebook's "People You May Know" through phone app (for Android and iOS)

If you choose to use Facebook on your Android or iOS device, friend suggestions may be too intrusive and invade your privacy. But, in the application, you can alter your account settings to block them. To do so, follow the steps below:

  1. First, tap on the Facebook app and log in to your profile page.

  2. Tap on the three horizontal line symbol (right corner).

  3. In the menu, scroll until you find "Settings & Privacy"; click on it. Once you open the settings and privacy menu, select "Settings".

    How to disable "People you may know" (Step 3): Find "Settings & Privacy"

  4. Scroll down to the "Notification" Settings option and tap on it to view your current notification settings on Facebook.

    How to disable "People you may know" (Step 4): Scroll to the "Notification"-Settings

  5. After you open the notification settings menu, tap on the "People You May Know" option.

    How to disable "People you may know" (Step 5): Click on "People You May Know"

  6. With a tap on the "Slider" next to each option, you can turn off or manage individual friend suggestion notifications through push, SMS, or email.

  7. However, if you do not wish to have any Facebook friend suggestions, select the "Allow Notifications On Facebook" option to turn off all notifications.

    How to disable "People you may know" (Step 7): Select "Allow Notifications On Facebook"

  8. You will have to give the necessary confirmation that you want to turn off any type of friend suggestions on the Facebook mobile app and website.

  9. If you choose to confirm, click on "Turn Off" If you want to keep receiving suggestions for friend requests, tap on "Cancel" (left button).

    How to disable "People you may know" (Step 9): Confirm your step with "Turn off"

With this new change in settings on the mobile app, the color of the slider will turn grey. All friend suggestions on your Facebook account will be removed as well.

Disabling Facebook's "People You May Know"-list through the desktop website

If you use a desktop or a laptop to access your Facebook account, follow these simple steps to block the friends' suggestions or "People You May Know"-list:

  1. Log in to access your Facebook account.

  2. Click the down-facing arrow menu icon in the right corner.

  3. A drop-down menu should appear; from there, click on "Settings and Privacy" and select "Settings".

    How to turn "People You May Know" off on your Laptop/Desktop (Step 3): Click on "Settings and Privacy", then "Settings"

  4. Now scroll down and click the "Notifications" option (on the left) in the Facebook Settings menu.

    How to turn "People You May Know" off on your Laptop/Desktop (Step 4): Click on "Notifications"

  5. From here, you will access the "People you may know"-option.

    How to turn "People You May Know" off on your Laptop/Desktop (Step 5): Go to "People You May Know"

  6. In numerous ways, Facebook shows you suggested friends so you can send them friend requests. Tap on the slider next to the various options listed if you want to block individual friend suggestions, but not the in-app suggestions (including email, push, and SMS notifications).

    How to turn "People You May Know" off on your Laptop/Desktop (Step 6): Remove any undesired notification options

  7. Next to the "Allow Notifications On Facebook", you will find a slider. If you want to turn off all friend suggestions on Facebook, toggle this to the "Off" position.. All notifications will be disabled as a result of this action.

Once you disable the People you may know on the list, Facebook will no longer offer other user accounts for you to send friend requests to.

Does a Facebook friend suggestion appear to a person when you view/stalk their profile?

The short answer is no. Facebook uses your location to suggest friends that you may want to send a friend request to. They do claim that they do not send your profile suggestion to the people whom you stalked; good news, right? But there are many claims where people have said otherwise. Without having insight knowledge of Facebook, this question will remain not completely clear.

Does Facebook suggest you friends based on your search history?

According to Facebook, people you've stalked or searched would not know you have searched them or visited their profile page. Facebook also claims that they do not use your search history data to prompt friend suggestions to your account. Although, you can never be 100% certain.

Summary

You can always choose to tweak your Facebook privacy settings to your preferences. After all, not all of us want a feature like a friend suggestions list on Facebook. We are sure that after reading this article, changing your privacy settings to block friend suggestions will be as easy as eating cake!