Old acquaintances: Facebook brings back friends-only feed to escape algorithm-driven content

Is “poking” next?

Facebook is bringing back a simpler social experience with its revamped Friends tab, allowing users to escape the algorithm-driven content that has dominated the platform. This update represents Meta‘s strategic shift toward recapturing Facebook’s original social networking purpose, particularly as the platform grapples with an aging user base and seeks to remain culturally relevant amid competition from newer social platforms.

The big picture: Facebook has redesigned its Friends tab to show only content from friends, creating a separate feed free from ads and algorithmic recommendations.

• The tab will display stories, reels, posts, and birthday updates exclusively from people you’ve connected with on the platform.
• Previously, this tab primarily showed pending friend requests and “People You May Know” suggestions rather than actual friend content.

Key details: The feature is currently available only to users in the United States and Canada.

• To access this friends-only experience, users need to manually pin the Friends tab to their navigation bar.
• The pinning process requires navigating through Settings & Privacy > Settings > Tab bar > Customize the bar, and then selecting Pin from the options next to Friends.

Why this matters: The update aligns with CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s stated goal of making Facebook “more culturally influential than it is today.”

• Meta described the Friends tab revamp as bringing back one of many “OG” features returning to Facebook this year.
• The company appears to be acknowledging user frustration with algorithm-driven content that has increasingly dominated the main feed.

Behind the numbers: Facebook faces demographic challenges as its user base ages and younger users gravitate toward other platforms.

• This nostalgic return to core social networking features represents an attempt to recapture what made Facebook popular initially.
• The strategic shift suggests Meta recognizes the value in Facebook’s original purpose of connecting friends, rather than serving primarily as a content discovery platform.