When using Facebook, you may find yourself wanting to look back at the friend requests you have sent to others. There are a couple different ways to see a list of the friend requests you have sent on Facebook.
View Sent Friend Requests on Facebook
The easiest way to see who you’ve sent friend requests to is to use the Sent Requests feature on Facebook. Here’s how:
- Go to your Facebook profile page and click on the Friends tab in the left sidebar.
- On the Friends page, click on the Find Friends link at the top.
- This will open the Find Friends page. Near the top, click on the See Sent Requests link.
- This will show you a list of all pending friend requests you’ve sent to people which they have not yet confirmed.
This Sent Requests page shows you the name and profile picture of each person you’ve sent a friend request to. It will continue to list them here until they either accept your friend request or ignore/decline it.
Check Your Activity Log
Another way to see friend requests you’ve sent is to check your Facebook Activity Log. This shows you a history of your interactions on Facebook. Here’s how to view sent friend requests in your log:
- Click on the arrow in the top right corner and select Activity Log from the dropdown menu.
- In the left sidebar, click on the Friends link to filter your activity log to just friend-related actions.
- Scroll through your activity log – any sent friend requests will show up here, mixed in chronologically with other friend actions.
The Activity Log goes back much further than the Sent Requests page, so you can use it to see friend requests you sent weeks or months ago. However, it takes more scrolling to find them mixed in with all your other activity.
Check Messages for Sent Requests
In some cases when you send someone a friend request, Facebook will allow you to include a message with the request. If you’ve done this, checking your messages can remind you who you sent custom friend requests to:
- Go to your messages page by clicking on the Messenger icon.
- Open the message thread you had with a person you think you sent a friend request to.
- Look for a message you sent that says something like “Friend request sent!” or that asks them to confirm your request.
If you tended to send personalized messages along with your friend requests, this can be a good way to jog your memory on who some of those requests went to.
Other Ways to Track Sent Requests
Beyond the built-in Facebook tools, there are a couple other options for keeping track of sent friend requests:
- Take screenshots when you send requests to people you may want to follow up with later.
- Keep a note on your phone or elsewhere listing people you’ve sent requests to.
- Install a third party Facebook management tool or browser extension that tracks friend requests.
Using manual tracking methods takes more effort, but ensures you have a reliable way to check on sent requests even months later. The right friend request tracking tool can do this automatically for you.
Following Up on Unconfirmed Requests
Once you’ve viewed your sent friend requests, you can follow up if needed:
- For pending requests, give the person more time to respond – don’t nag them.
- If it’s been weeks with no reply, politely ask if they received your request.
- If rejected, respect their decision and don’t send another request.
- Periodically review your sent requests page and remove any very old pending requests.
With patience and respect for others’ preferences, following up on sent Facebook friend requests can help turn some ignores into accepts – but avoid pestering people who have already passed on connecting.
Why Can’t I See Some Sent Requests?
In some cases, your sent friend requests may not show up in any of the spots mentioned above. There are a few possible reasons for this:
- They already confirmed your request, so it no longer appears as “sent.”
- They rejected your request, so Facebook removed it from your sent list.
- Your request was blocked by Facebook’s spam detection filters.
- It was very old, so it aged off your Activity Log history.
- You requested friendship from a page rather than a person.
- You requested to follow a person’s restricted account.
If you’re positive you sent someone a friend request but can’t find any record of it, one of these factors above is likely the reason it’s not showing up.
Limits to How Many Requests You Can Send
Facebook does limit how many friend requests you can send in a given period of time. Here are some details on the limits:
- You can send a maximum of 100 friend requests per day.
- You can have a maximum of 5000 pending sent requests at a time.
- If you go over either limit, you may be temporarily blocked from sending more.
These limits prevent spam behavior and high-volume friend request blasts. As long as you’re below the daily and total limits, you can continue to send requests as desired.
Managing Friend Requests You’ve Received
On the flip side, you can also manage friend requests you’ve received from others:
- Pending requests appear in your notifications and on your profile.
- Click Confirm to accept a request or Delete Request to ignore.
- You can also ignore a request to leave it in pending limbo.
- Review pending requests regularly to clear out old ones.
Keeping incoming requests under control makes it easier to monitor new requests from people you actually want to connect with. Don’t just let old requests pile up forever.
Other Tips for Managing Friend Requests
Here are some additional pointers for friend request management:
- Add a friendly note when you send someone a request.
- Personalize requests to show you want a meaningful connection.
- Aim for quality over quantity in your friend network.
- Tune your privacy settings if getting too many unwanted requests.
- Organize your friends into Lists to better manage connections.
Sending and receiving Facebook friend requests is central to building your network. Take the time to be thoughtful and purposeful in the connections you form.
Conclusion
Facebook provides several tools to view your sent friend requests, including the Sent Requests page, Activity Log, and Messages. Check these places to see who you’ve reached out to in the past. You can then follow up on pending requests, get reminders of ignored ones, and understand why some may be missing. With the ability to see your Facebook friend request history, you can thoughtfully manage this important part of connecting on social media.
| Friend Request Action | Where to View |
|---|---|
| Pending requests sent | Sent Requests page |
| Old requests sent | Activity Log |
| Requests sent with messages | Messenger |
| Requests received | Notifications, Profile |
This summarizes the key places you can check for different types of friend request history. With access to your sent and received requests, you can better manage your Facebook friends and connections.
Connecting with others is an essential piece of the Facebook experience. By thoughtfully maintaining your friend requests over time, you can build a quality network that enhances your social media interactions. So go out there and connect with new people – just be sure to keep tabs on who you’ve reached out to!