Meta has no shortage of serious priorities right now — AI, the metaverse, keeping regulators off its back. Yet somehow, the Facebook poke has wriggled its way back onto the company’s to-do list. Yes, that poke. The one that was once dismissed as pointless, flirty, or flat-out creepy.
According to an Instagram post from Meta, pokes are getting fresh visibility inside the Facebook app. They’re back on user profiles, and there’s now a central dashboard at facebook.com/pokes to track all your poke-related exchanges. In true 2020s style, there’s even a streak-lite system, with emojis changing based on how many times you and a friend have jabbed each other virtually.
For anyone who wasn’t around in 2004, poking was one of Facebook’s first “interactions.” Before reactions, before the news feed, before Messenger, you had two options: leave a comment on a wall or poke someone. It never really meant anything — which, depending on context, was either the charm or the problem.
The feature technically never disappeared, but Facebook buried it so deeply that only the most committed nostalgics kept track. Meta claimed last year that after surfacing pokes in search, activity spiked 13x. That was enough encouragement to give it another push.
Why bother? Zuckerberg has said he wants to revive more “OG Facebook” features, including the radical idea of seeing posts from actual friends. Meta is also desperate to win over young adults, who grew up trading Snap streaks. In that light, a poke revival looks less like nostalgia and more like an attempt to give Gen Z their own Facebook in-joke.
Whether they embrace it or leave it where it belongs — the mid-2000s — is another matter entirely.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
