Facebook’s friend suggestion and request features can be useful for connecting with people you know but aren’t yet friends with on Facebook. However, many users find the constant notifications about friend requests and suggestions annoying or overwhelming. Fortunately, Facebook provides settings to control these notifications and requests.
What are Facebook friend requests?
A Facebook friend request is when another Facebook user sends you a request to become friends on Facebook. When you receive a friend request, you’ll get a notification on Facebook and you can choose to confirm or ignore the request. If you confirm the request, you become Facebook friends with that person.
Facebook users can send friend requests to any other user, even if they don’t know that person. Sometimes people receive friend requests from strangers, which can feel invasive.
What are Facebook friend suggestions?
Facebook friend suggestions are recommendations for people you may know. Friend suggestions are based on things like having mutual friends, working at the same company, or attending the same school.
When Facebook detects a potential connection between you and another user, it will suggest that person to you as a potential friend. You’ll see these suggestions in your “People You May Know” section. You can choose to add the suggested person as a friend or ignore the suggestion.
Turning Off Friend Requests
If you’re tired of getting facebook friend requests, especially from people you don’t know, you can turn them off completely. Here’s how:
- Go to your Facebook Settings
- Select “Privacy”
- Go to “How people can find and contact you”
- Turn off “Who can send you friend requests”
This will prevent anyone from being able to send you a friend request. People will be able to send you a message, but not actually request to be your friend.
Other Options for Controlling Requests
Instead of turning off requests completely, you have a few other options:
- Restrict requests to “Friends of Friends” – This means only people with mutual friends can request you
- Restrict requests to “Friends” – Only your existing friends will be able to send you requests
- Manually review all requests – Facebook will notify you of each new request but won’t automatically add friends. You get to review and approve each one.
These settings allow you to filter requests so you only get them from people you’re likely to know.
Turning Off Friend Suggestions
In addition to controlling requests, you can also turn off Facebook’s friend recommendations:
- Go to your Facebook Settings
- Select “Privacy”
- Go to “How people can find and contact you”
- Turn off “Do you want us to suggest friends for you?”
This will completely disable the “People You May Know” section where Facebook recommends friends.
Other Options for Controlling Suggestions
Instead of completely disabling suggestions, you can narrow them down:
- Restrict suggestions to “Friends of Friends” – You’ll only get suggestions with mutual friends
- Choose specific criteria like school or workplace – Facebook will only suggest people matching that criteria
- See fewer suggestions – Limit how many people Facebook suggests
These options let you reduce the number of suggestions to those most likely to be relevant.
Pros and Cons of Turning Off Requests and Suggestions
Before disabling these Facebook features completely, consider the pros and cons:
Pros
- Prevents spam requests from strangers
- Stops distracting notifications
- Provides more privacy and control over contacts
Cons
- Makes it harder to discover and connect with new friends
- Won’t let you find people you may know but aren’t already connected to
- Reduces usefulness of Facebook for networking and meeting people
Other Ways to Decline and Remove Friends
In addition to controlling the incoming friend requests and suggestions, you can also proactively remove friends and decline requests:
Removing Existing Friends
- Go to the person’s profile
- Select “Friends” below their cover photo
- Choose “Unfriend”
This will remove them from your friends list without notifying them.
Declining Friend Requests
- Click on the friend request notification
- Select “Decline Request”
This lets you directly decline the request instead of just ignoring it.
Preventing Re-Requests
If someone keeps sending you the same request after you’ve declined, you can block them:
- Click on the request notification
- Select “Decline and Block”
This declines the current request and prevents any future requests from that person.
Conclusion
While Facebook’s features are designed to help you connect with more people, too many friend requests and suggestions can feel invasive and overwhelming. Fortunately, you have fine-grained control over these features.
Turning off friend requests and suggestions completely prevents unwanted contact but also limits your networking capabilities. Restricting requests and suggestions to “Friends of Friends” can be a good compromise.
Proactively removing friends and declining requests also helps keep your network manageable. Use the settings that work best for your personal preferences and needs.