Do you know where Facebook friend suggestions come from and why they appear on your account ?

 

The goal of the world's most popular social network, Facebook, is to connect people. Unlike other social media platforms, the content shared by the people we've added as friends has a greater reach when displayed on our Facebook feed.

With that in mind, it's natural to see friend suggestions appear on our profile from time to time. These are recommendations generated by Facebook itself, encouraging us to expand our network of connections.

Although Facebook’s algorithm constantly tries to find relevant matches to make these suggestions reasonable, it’s quite common to come across completely unknown people who have no apparent connection to our profile.

Where Do Facebook Friend Suggestions Come From?

Facebook has an algorithm that continuously analyzes user profiles. For example, if you added a work colleague a few days ago, the algorithm will try to find connections between your profile and the people that person has added as friends.

If it finds a match—whether through mutual friends, workplace connections, or shared interactions—it initiates a silent interaction process. What does this mean? You will repeatedly receive notifications to add that person as a friend.

To clarify, the information Facebook uses to generate friend suggestions is based on four main factors:

• Contacts the user already has.
• People connected to our friends whom we might know.
• Activity related to shared posts, groups, or tags.
• Profile information such as city, school, or workplace.

Mutual friends play a key role in how the algorithm functions. However, there are instances where the suggestions miss the mark, leading to recommendations for completely random people with no apparent link to our profile.

Why Do Friend Suggestions Appear on Facebook?

As explained earlier, these suggestions appear due to Facebook’s algorithm. When it finds a match between our profile and other users, a suggestion is displayed, aiming to help us expand our network and connect with people we might know.

Additionally, if someone searches for us on Facebook and views our profile, the platform updates its algorithm and may suggest that person as a friend. Likewise, if we search for someone or interact with their profile, Facebook may recommend us as a friend to them.

It's worth noting that friend suggestions can be disabled from profile settings. However, it's generally not recommended, as this feature not only helps us find people we may know but also gives us insight into who might be "checking" our profile.