The Poke is one of Facebook’s oldest features. It existed at a time when the social network was still called The facebook, and there wasn’t as much to do on the site as there is today. The meaning of the Poke was never defined, as Facebook decided to leave it up to interpretation.
“When we created the poke, we thought it would be cool to have a feature without any specific purpose,” Facebook had explained in the past. “People interpret the poke in many different ways, and we encourage you to come up with your own meanings.”
Of course, many people took the Poke to be a form of virtual flirting while others saw it as more of a joke. Poke wars between friends ensued, as well.
Now it looks like Facebook wants to give the Poke another shot.
The new Poke button’s placement also makes it easier accidental Pokes to occur, when you were aiming for the Message button instead, or just browsing through a user’s profile.
For this reason, not everyone is thrilled with the new button, it seems:
The new Facebook app makes it too easy to poke people. That was supposed to be hard to get to so girls knew you were really thinking about them.
Okay, but Facebook has now made it far too easy to accidentally ‘poke’ someone. It’s right on the top of their profile. I don’t need that stress in my life.
Did you know you can still “poke” people on Facebook? I didn’t. Until I ACCIDENTALLY POKED SOMEONE LAST NIGHT and they poked me back.
Because the feature is from an earlier era of Facebook history, the Poke is actually somewhat mysterious to some users who don’t know what the feature does or why it’s there. Others, who do remember the Poke, assumed it had been removed and has just now returned:
does anyone know what the “poke” button on facebook means? I just found out i had 288 pokes, some were from like 2012 but i poked all them back so whatever.
I THINK THEY HAVE POKE BACK ON FACEBOOK
Why did Facebook bring back the poke!?
But the Poke had never been shut off for good – it was just tucked away in the navigation. Now, it’s sort of impossible to miss.
Facebook isn’t done with the Poke yet, either.
The company has been testing a new series of greetings including hello, high-fiving, hugging, and winking, in addition to the Poke, The Next Web recently discovered.
These also sit at the top of users’ profiles for those who have been added to the test group, and appear as bright, colorful buttons. (It had tested a “hello” button earlier this year, as well.)
Above: a demo of the new Greetings feature on Facebook
The idea with Greetings is to offer Facebook users more ways to reach out to friends, beyond posting to their profiles, commenting and direct messaging. With these more lightweight interactions, you can show a friend you’re thinking about them with little effort on your part.
But Facebook will need to be careful with the launch of Pokes and Greetings. In the past, some women said the Facebook Poke often felt like a creepy flirting tool, for example. If the new Greetings buttons or the new Poke button are available to anyone on Facebook to access, and not just a user’s friends, they could be abused as a way to pester someone online.
Not everyone has the test of the Greetings buttons or the new Poke button, we understand. Facebook would not confirm if or when it would make these features publicly available to all.
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