Facebook brings back the Poke to reignite user engagement

Facebook is revisiting one of its oldest features as part of its ongoing efforts to engage younger audiences: the poke. Once a hallmark of the social network’s early days, the poke allowed users to get a friend’s attention with a simple virtual nudge. While it largely fell out of favor over the years, Meta has recently noticed a resurgence in its usage among younger users, prompting the company to make the feature more prominent on the platform.

Now, Facebook users can send a poke directly from a dedicated button on a friend’s profile, with recipients receiving an instant notification. Additionally, users can track poke activity at facebook.com/pokes, where they can see who has poked them, poke friends in return, and monitor a “poke count” that grows every time two users poke each other. The page also allows users to dismiss pokes if they prefer not to reciprocate. This gamified tracking system aims to make the poke feel interactive and playful, echoing engagement techniques popular on other social apps.

Meta’s push to revitalize the poke is clearly influenced by trends in gamification, particularly those seen in apps like Snapchat and TikTok. Features such as Streaks allow users to maintain ongoing interactions with friends, effectively encouraging regular app usage. While these mechanics have faced regulatory scrutiny for their addictive qualities, they have proven effective at driving engagement. By emphasizing poke counts and adding playful icons, such as fire emojis or milestone numbers, Facebook is attempting to replicate a similar form of interactive connection among users.

The poke is deliberately ambiguous in its meaning, which adds to its charm and versatility. Users can decide for themselves whether a poke is intended to catch someone’s attention, flirt, or simply annoy. Meta has historically left its interpretation open-ended, allowing users to assign personal meaning to the interaction. This flexibility differentiates it from more structured social mechanics like streaks, where the rules and expectations are clearly defined.

Facebook has made multiple attempts to revive the poke in recent months. In March 2024, the company streamlined access to the poking page via search and simplified the process of poking a friend after finding them. These adjustments reportedly led to a dramatic 13-fold increase in poke activity within a month. The success of these small changes likely encouraged Meta to further integrate the feature into the platform’s core user experience.

While poke counts may never reach the level of popularity seen with streaks, their addition signals a strategic push by Meta to enhance daily engagement on Facebook. Research into social media habits underscores the effectiveness of such interactive features. For example, studies by Jon Haidt, author of “The Anxious Generation,” highlight how Snap was aware of the habit-forming nature of streaks, which kept users returning to the app regularly. Internal Snap documents revealed the company’s acknowledgment of streaks’ popularity and their direct impact on driving engagement, demonstrating how such gamified mechanics can influence user behavior.

For Meta, maintaining engagement is crucial as Facebook continues to serve as a major revenue driver while supporting longer-term bets in areas such as AI and metaverse development. Despite its profitability, Facebook has struggled to retain younger users, particularly in the U.S., where demographic shifts have led to declining interest. In response, Meta has experimented with initiatives targeting younger audiences, from the short-lived Facebook Campus feature to recent Gen Z-focused redesigns. The revival of the poke fits into this broader effort to make the platform more appealing to a demographic that increasingly favors interactive, playful, and gamified social experiences.

The return of the poke also reflects a growing trend in social media toward leveraging nostalgia. Features that evoke early social networking experiences, when combined with modern gamification techniques, can spark renewed interest and create a sense of fun that encourages daily engagement. For younger users, who may not have experienced the original poke, the feature offers a playful way to interact with friends in a low-pressure, non-verbal manner.