Facebook badges are a way for users to showcase their interests, achievements, and connections on the social media platform. There are many different types of badges that can be earned, from location badges to interest badges to friendship badges. While some badges are given out automatically by Facebook’s algorithm, most require some type of engagement or participation from the user in order to obtain them.
Types of Facebook Badges
Here are some of the most common types of badges seen on Facebook profiles:
- Location Badges – These showcase places the user has checked into or visited. Examples include a badge for checking in at a specific restaurant, visiting a landmark, or traveling to a certain city or country.
- Friendship Badges – These highlight friendships and connections on Facebook. Examples include badges for having a certain number of friends, being members of the same family, or checking in at an event with friends.
- Interest Badges – These represent hobbies, interests, entertainment and more. Users can get badges for liking pages related to music, sports teams, movies, books, games, and other interests.
- Achievement Badges – These highlight accomplishments and milestones. Examples include badges for sharing a certain number of photos, using Facebook features like Marketplace, or being active on the platform for a certain number of years.
- Engagement Badges – These are given for participating in Facebook groups, events, fundraisers, and more. Users can get badges for admining a group, RSVPing to a number of events, donating to fundraisers, and other forms of engagement.
How Friendship Badges Are Given
One of the most common badge types is the friendship badge. Here is how Facebook determines when to give out friendship badges:
- New Friend Badge – This badge appears when a user has made a new friend connection on Facebook. It is automatically assigned once a friend request has been sent and accepted.
- 50 Friends Badge – After reaching 50 friends, this milestone badge will appear automatically.
- 100 Friends Badge – Upon reaching 100 total confirmed friends, the 100 Friends badges will be assigned.
- 500 Friends Badge – Gained automatically when a user’s friend count exceeds 500.
- 1000 (or more) Friends Badge – Earned when user reaches over 1000 total Facebook friends.
So in summary, friendship badges are automatically given out by Facebook at certain friend count milestones. Users don’t have to do anything extra besides making standard friend connections to earn these badges.
How Location Badges Work
Location badges showcase places users have visited. Here is how they work:
- Check-in Badges – Each time a user checks in at a location like a restaurant, store, landmark, or other public place, they unlock the badge associated with that place.
- City Badges – After checking in at multiple locations in the same city, users will earn a badge for that city. The specific criteria depends on the city.
- Country Badges – Similar to city badges, these are earned by checking in to enough locations within a particular country.
So for location badges, users must actively check in using Facebook’s check-in feature to unlock them. Simply traveling to a place doesn’t earn the badge – users have to intentionally check in using the Facebook app in order to get credit.
How Interest Badges Are Given
Interest badges showcase the hobbies, entertainment, causes and pages that a user engages with on Facebook. They are obtained by:
- Page Likes – Liking a page related to a certain interest, whether it’s a celebrity, movie, book, sport, or other topic, earns a badge associated with that page.
- Using Features – Interacting with Facebook features centered around a topic, like music or sports, earns interest badges. For example, listening to songs earns music badges.
- Topic Connections – Having enough interests or friendships related to a specific topic can trigger a badge even without directly liking pages. For example, having multiple sci-fi loving friends may earn a Sci-Fi badge.
Interest badges are unique in that they can be earned passively in some cases without directly liking pages, unlike most other badge types which require direct action.
How Achievement Badges Are Awarded
Achievement badges recognize major milestones and accomplishments on Facebook. Here are some typical ways they are awarded:
- Tenure Badges – Being an active Facebook user for 5, 10, 15 or more years earns special tenure badges
- Post Milestones – Sharing a certain number of posts, photos, videos and other content unlocks achievements.
- Feature Use – Usage of Marketplace, Watch Party, Reels and other Facebook products earns relevant achievement badges.
- Group Admin – Managing or founding a Facebook group with a minimum number of members earns an admin badge.
So achievement badges usually involve hitting numerical milestones, like posting a certain amount over time or using features repeatedly. They help highlight a user’s deep engagement with the platform.
How Engagement Badges Are Earned
Engagement badges encourage participation in Facebook groups, events, and causes. Users can earn them by:
- Group Membership – Being an active member in one or more Facebook groups.
- Event RSVPs – RSVPing yes to a certain number of events earns event badges.
- Fundraiser Donation – Donating to fundraisers organized on Facebook through the donation tools.
- Crowdsource Contribution – Participating in Facebook crowdsourcing campaigns like finding missing people.
Essentially, engagement badges are unlocked by participating in collaborative experiences on Facebook. They recognize users who help bring people together on the platform in various ways.
Other Ways of Getting Badges
While the above covers the most common methods, here are a couple other ways Facebook users may get special badges:
- Employee Badge – Current and former Facebook employees can get a special badge on their profile.
- Gaming Badges – Facebook gaming creators/streamers can earn unique badges related to their gaming activities.
- Paid Badges – In the past, Facebook has offered special badges that users could pay to unlock as part of charitable fundraisers.
- Brand Campaign Badges – As part of marketing campaigns, brands have created branded badge giveaways for liking/following pages.
Rarer badges like for gaming, employment or marketing campaigns tend to be one-time giveaways or require very specific criteria to be met.
How to View and Manage Facebook Badges
To view all badges earned so far:
- Go to your Facebook profile
- Click on the About section
- Click on the Badges tab
This will showcase all current badges. You can click each one to see when it was unlocked.
If desired, you can also:
- Hide individual badges – Click the X on any badge tile to stop displaying it.
- Re-display hidden badges – Click “Add Badges” to see formerly hidden options.
- Display badges prominently – Edit your intro section to feature badges of your choosing.
Badge management allows customizing which badges are visible to convey your persona and connections on Facebook in the way you prefer.
Conclusion
Facebook badges showcase the diverse interests, achievements, and connections of users on the platform. While some are earned automatically once certain criteria are met, most require active participation through things like check-ins, page likes, and RSVPs. Badges incentivize engagement in many Facebook features while allowing self-expression. They have become an iconic part of personal profiles and self-representation on the social network.