Facebook Messenger is a popular messaging app used by billions of people worldwide. It has a useful feature that suggests friends based on your contacts, networks, shared interests etc. However, sometimes you may see irrelevant suggestions or people you wish to avoid. Thankfully, there are ways to remove them from the suggestions.
As a long-time Messenger user and social media expert, I will explain why you get friend suggestions, and how to manage them effectively.
Table of Contents
Why Does Messenger Suggest Friends?
When you first set up Messenger, it asks permission to access your contacts. This allows it to match your existing contacts to Facebook profiles, and recommend them as potential friends.
Other factors that influence suggestions:
- Mutual Friends: People sharing mutual friends with you are likely to appear in the suggestions.
- Networks: Being part of the same Facebook groups or networks can trigger a suggestion.
- Interests: Common interests, hobbies, locations etc. also play a role in the algorithm.
The goal is to connect you with relevant people you may know and want to interact with. However, irrelevant suggestions can indeed be annoying.
How to Remove Suggested Friends on Messenger
Here are the top methods to remove someone from the suggestions:
1. Disable Contact Uploads
Messenger relies heavily on your contacts to make friend suggestions. So disabling contact access removes this signal.
On Android/iOS:
- Open Messenger > Tap your profile pic > Settings & Privacy > Contacts
- Toggle off “Continuous Uploading”
This will stop uploading new contacts automatically. You can also delete all previously uploaded contacts.
2. Hide Specific Contacts
Rather than disabling contact sync entirely, you can hide individual contacts:
- Open a chat with the person > Tap their name > Hide from Suggested
This removes them from suggestions without blocking them entirely.
3. Restrict Someone
Another option is to “Restrict” annoying contacts. This is less harsh than blocking:
- Long press a chat > Tap Restrict > Restrict [Name]
It prevents them messaging you, removes chat from the list, and stops their active status showing to you.
4. Turn Off Suggestions
You can disable Messenger suggestions completely by toggling it off:
- Tap your profile pic > Messenger Settings > Suggestions > Turn Off
This removes all suggestions, relying solely on your search to find friends.
Other Useful Tips
Here are some additional tips to manage Messenger suggestions:
- Log Out on All Devices: Logging out then logging back in clears caches and resets suggestions.
- Review App Permissions: Check what permissions Messenger has, and disable access to contacts, location etc if concerned.
- Use Secret Conversations: For private chats, use Messenger’s Secret Conversations feature that offers end-to-end encryption.
- Review Privacy Settings: Customize who can see your info, message/call you in the app’s extensive Privacy Settings.
Conclusion
While friend suggestions can be useful, irrelevant ones can be annoying. Thankfully, Messenger provides plenty of options to tailor suggestions to your comfort level – by removing contacts, restricting people, disabling suggestions and more.
Hopefully these tips will help you control friend recommendations for a better Messenger experience. Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions!
