21 Years Later, Meta Still Hasn't Given Up On The Facebook 'poke'

Meta presently has tons of priorities Mark Zuckerberg apt ne'er would person imagined backmost successful nan early days of Facebook. The institution has pivoted from societal networking to nan metaverse and, astir recently, to AI. But somehow, 1 of its earliest — and astir useless — features has not only survived but is apparently getting a revamp. I'm talking, of course, astir the poke, which Meta is erstwhile again trying to revive. 

The institution is making nan storied characteristic easier to find by adding pokes backmost to personification profiles successful nan Facebook app, according to a post it shared connected Instagram. And you tin way each poking-related activity betwixt you and your friends astatine facebook.com/pokes. It moreover looks for illustration there's a Snapchat-streak for illustration facet wherever different emojis look based connected really galore pokes person been exchanged. 

Just successful lawsuit you weren't connected Facebook 2 decades ago, "poking" was thing of a novelty successful nan early days of nan societal network. At nan time, location weren't that galore features for interacting pinch your friends. You could time off comments connected their floor plan and … you could "poke." The characteristic ne'er really did anything, but depending connected who it came from it was considered thing betwixt creepy aliases flirty.  As Meta notes successful its Instagram post, poking ne'er really went away, but it was de-emphasized complete nan years and has been mostly forgotten by users.

But nan institution has for immoderate logic been trying to get poking to make a comeback for a while now. Meta said past twelvemonth nan characteristic was "having a moment" and that location had been a 13x spike successful pokes aft nan institution began surfacing nan characteristic successful nan Facebook hunt bar. Now, it seems Meta is trying to build moreover much momentum for it, presumably for nan existent procreation of younger Facebook users. 

Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this twelvemonth he wants to bring backmost much "OG" Facebook features like… being capable to find contented posted by your actual friends. And it's difficult to get much "OG Facebook" than poking. Meta has besides been connected a years-long ngo to triumph over "young adults,"  truthful it mightiness spot nan jokey characteristic arsenic a measurement to entreaty to a procreation utilized to taking their Snap streak highly seriously.