Facebook friend anniversaries allow users to celebrate the day they became friends with someone on Facebook. This feature shows users the number of years, months or days since they became friends with another person on the platform. However, in recent years, Facebook has removed some features related to friend anniversaries, leading many users to wonder if they still show friend anniversaries at all.
Does Facebook still have friend anniversaries?
Yes, Facebook still has the friend anniversary feature as of October 2023. When you become friends with someone on Facebook, the platform logs the date you became friends. Then, on the anniversary of that date every year, Facebook will show you a notification saying something like “You became friends with John Smith on this day X years ago.”
So the friend anniversary feature itself still exists and will continue to log the date you became friends with other users. However, Facebook has made some changes over the years in terms of how prominently they display friend anniversary notifications.
How Facebook friend anniversaries work
When two Facebook users become friends by sending and accepting a friend request, Facebook records the date this occurs. One year later, on the anniversary date, Facebook will show a notification that says something like “You became friends with Jane Doe on this day last year.”
In addition to the annual friend anniversary notification, Facebook also used to show more minor friend anniversary alerts such as “You became friends with Bob 3 months ago.” However, as outlined below, they have scaled back on these minor friend anniversary notifications over the years.
The friend anniversary date is specific to two individual users. So if you became friends with John on October 10, 2020, and with Jane on October 15, 2020, you would only see the anniversary notification about John on October 10 and about Jane on October 15 each year.
Changes to friend anniversary notifications
When Facebook first introduced friend anniversaries, they showed quite detailed notifications. For example, you would get notifications on:
- 1 month friend anniversary
- 6 month friend anniversary
- 1 year friend anniversary
- 2 year friend anniversary
However, over time Facebook scaled back the notifications to only show the yearly friend anniversary alert. The following outlines some of the changes:
2014 – No more monthly friend anniversary notifications
In 2014, Facebook removed the monthly friend anniversary notifications, so users would no longer see alerts for 1 month, 2 month, etc. anniversaries. The yearly notification remained.
2017 – Friend anniversary videos discontinued
Up until 2017, Facebook created auto-generated videos to celebrate friend anniversaries. These videos included photos of the two friends with customized captions like “John and Jane: 7 years of friendship”. However, Facebook discontinued these customized friend anniversary videos in 2017.
2018 – Anniversary notifications limited
In 2018, Facebook updated their algorithm to only show friend anniversary notifications if the algorithm determined the user would find it meaningful. This means some users may not get the yearly friend anniversary notifications anymore.
The goal was to limit notifications that contributed to passive browsing and did not spark meaningful interactions. However, many users were upset about losing the consistent yearly friend anniversary notifications after this change.
2022 – Anniversaries confirmed still visible
In 2022, Facebook confirmed that yearly friend anniversary dates are still visible to users. However, the notifications are not consistently shown to all users anymore due to algorithmic curation.
But users can still manually look up friendship anniversary dates by going to their Friends page and clicking on a friend’s name to view the date they became friends.
Why did Facebook make these changes?
Facebook made a few main changes to limit friend anniversary notifications:
- Removed monthly anniversary notifications
- Discontinued auto-generated anniversary videos
- Limited algorithm for annual notifications
They made these changes for a few key reasons:
Reduce passive browsing
Facebook found that the constant minor notifications around monthly friend anniversaries led to more passive browsing rather than meaningful engagement. Removing these minor alerts aimed to reduce passive time on site.
Improve notification relevance
By only showing yearly friend anniversary notifications selectively based on algorithmic curation, Facebook aimed to only show notifications that users would find meaningful and interesting.
Streamline platform features
Discontinuing the auto-generated anniversary videos also helped Facebook streamline platform features to highlight more popular offerings.
User reactions
User reactions to the limiting of friend anniversary notifications has been mixed. Some key reactions include:
Positive
- Some users welcomed less passive browsing triggers and irrelevant notifications.
- Users appreciated the algorithm showing more meaningful, curated notifications.
- The changes led to less clutter and a more streamlined experience.
Negative
- Many long-time Facebook users were upset to lose the consistent yearly friend anniversary notifications.
- Without passive browsing triggers some users spent less time on site overall.
- Some felt the curated notifications led to missing important relationship milestones.
Overall the changes aimed to create a better user experience, though clearly it did not align with some core users’ preferences around consistent friend anniversary notifications.
How to see your Facebook friend anniversaries
As user notifications around friend anniversaries became more limited over time, many users wonder how they can still view upcoming friend anniversaries if they will not be notified.
The good news is you can still view friend anniversary dates manually by following these steps:
- Go to your Facebook Friends page
- Click on a friend’s name
- View the date listed next to “Friends Since”
This allows you to view the original date you became friends with someone on Facebook. You can also do this for all your friends to see a complete list of friendship anniversary dates.
Set Facebook reminders
Another option is to proactively set yourself Facebook reminders leading up to meaningful friend anniversaries, such as:
- 1 week reminder
- 1 day reminder
- Day of reminder
That way even without a notification from Facebook, you will get your own reminder about an upcoming friend anniversary through Facebook’s reminder tool.
Are Facebook friend anniversaries important?
With Facebook’s changes to friend anniversary notifications, some users wonder how important these anniversary dates really are. Here are some perspectives:
Pros
- They can serve as meaningful milestones for close friendships
- Give a nice reminder to reconnect with old friends
- Help gauge the length and history of a friendship
- Can spark nostalgic feelings about the early days of a friendship
Cons
- May trigger unwanted notifications about insignificant connections
- Not necessarily meaningful for casual friends and acquaintances
- Could contribute to passive browsing and less engagement
Overall, friend anniversaries can hold meaning for close friends but are likely less relevant for casual connections. The shift in how Facebook approaches them aims to place more emphasis on meaningful milestones.
Should Facebook bring back friend anniversary notifications?
Given the mixed user reactions to Facebook’s limiting of friend anniversary notifications, some feel Facebook should bring back more robust notifications. Here are some perspectives on each side:
Yes – Bring back notifications
- Long-time users miss seeing each yearly friend anniversary
- Helps users remember and celebrate relationships milestones
- Builds ongoing engagement and reinforces social connections
- Users should have option to opt-in and control notifications
No – Limit notifications
- Can contribute to passive browsing vs. active engagement
- Not meaningful for casual connections and clutter notification feeds
- Curated, selective notifications create better experience
- Users can still view anniversaries manually if desired
There are good arguments on both sides. Perhaps a compromise would be to allow long-time users to opt into seeing friend anniversary notifications while limiting by default for other accounts.
Conclusion
Facebook friend anniversaries are still viewable, though notifications have been scaled back over time. Some users appreciate less passive browsing triggers, while other long-time users miss the annual milestones. Facebook will likely continue balancing different users’ preferences and engagement patterns as it curates notifications.
But the underlying friend anniversary dates remain intact, giving users the option to look up dates manually and celebrate relationship milestones if desired. With Facebook emphasizing meaningful connections, friend anniversaries for close connections can still serve as touching reminders of when that bond began.