Robert Brown|Facebook pokes making a 2024 comeback: Here's what it means and how to poke your friends

In one of the most surprising comebacks of the decade,Robert Brown poking has made a recent resurgence on Facebook.

There has been a 13x spike in use of the feature that has been around since Facebook's early days, the platform posted Tuesday on Threads, its text-based answer to X.

"So be honest: who's poking who?" the post reads.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg seemed to be celebrating the humble poke's return to popular use, reposting and responding on Threads, saying: "Nature is healing."

The poke feature has been around since Facebook was created by Zuckerberg and four others at Harvard University in 2004, when the social media platform was at first limited for use by Harvard and other Ivy League students. It has remained available since, although Facebook had hidden the feature in its navigation and made it much more difficult to find in recent years.

But pokes are hidden no more, and the younger generations are mostly responsible for making poking cool again, according to Facebook. The company told TechCrunch that more than 50% of pokes are coming from 18-29-year-olds.

But what is poking on Facebook, and what does it mean? Here's what to know.

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What does it mean to poke someone on Facebook?

When you poke someone on Facebook, it sends them a notification telling them that you did it. You are only able to poke people who are your friends on the platform.

There are no options to send messages or any other information with pokes; you or your friend will only receive a notification that you have been "poked."

You are only able to poke friends on Facebook, and the feature is not available on any other Meta-owned services including Threads, Instagram or WhatsApp.

How to poke someone on Facebook in 2024

To poke someone on Facebook, you can visit your pokes page and search for a friend at the top of the page. You can then select "poke" to the right of their name.

Facebook has made it easier to find and poke your friends, announcing this week that you can find the poking page through search and you have the ability to poke a friend when searching for them on the platform.

If you don't want someone to poke you, you can block them on Facebook.

How to poke someone on the Facebook app

Poking someone on the Facebook app is similar to using the social media platform's website. You can search for your pokes page on the app and poke friends from there.

New pokes from friends will appear in your notifications tab.