Facebook used to offer a Poke button – a pointing finger next to the user’s name – through which you could… ‘poke’ someone.
That’s all though – there was no message, no pictures, nothing, just a virtual, contextless jab. The next thing you know, you’ve got a notification saying you got a Poke, and you could poke back directly from notifications.
See: What Is a Facebook Poke? Is It Still a Thing?
A cycle of back and forth ‘poking’ without purpose followed.
If the disdain of the young isn’t enough to convince you not to – sending a poke is pretty simple.
On mobile or desktop, just go to the profile page of anyone you want to Poke, and then click/ tap on the three dots menu button. There, you’ll see Poke. Click/tap on that, and you’re done.
There are no further options, you’ll just see a popup telling you that you poked the person.
If you’ve already Poked someone and they didn’t respond, the popup will tell you that your last Poke has not been responded to, and you’ll only see a cancel button.
See: Facebook Login In Facebook Login In – Creating New Facebook Account
Given that most people we spoke to didn’t know that pokes were still a thing, we wanted to know more about what Facebook is doing with the feature.
According to reports, Facebook is trying to make the Poke button more prominent again, though this might be restricted to the US for now, as none of the users we spoke to had seen this.
If it rolls out more widely, you’ll see the Poke button next to the message button under a person’s name on their profile page. What’s more, Facebook appears to be turning pokes into greetings, much like it changed the ‘like’ into a series of reactions.