Remember when you used to “poke” your friends on Facebook to get their attention, embarrass them, or just start a poke war? Now, Facebook has added some small improvements to the poking feature. We're trying to bring back that experience with updates.
The company announced Tuesday that it has recently improved the platform's suggestions for who to poke, making it easier to find poking pages through search. Additionally, Facebook has added the ability to poke your friends when you search for them on the social network.
Facebook says these small changes have led to a 13x spike in poking over the past month. Although many of them did not respond to the initial poke surge, younger users embraced the feature, as Facebook notes that more than 50% of pokers are between the ages of 18 and 29. It's starting.
Poking is one of Facebook's oldest features, dating back to the platform's founding in 2004, but was hidden away in the navigation after it fell out of favor. Facebook never defines what the idea behind pecking is, leaving it up to user interpretation, and some choose to use it as a method of flirtation.
Now, the company is resurfacing the feature on the occasion of the social network's 20th anniversary, framing it as an easy way to say “hello” to a friend.
You may be thinking, “I haven't poked someone in over 10 years, so why would I do it now?” Instead, ask yourself why not?