Back in the days when Facebook was mostly blue walls, status updates, and FarmVille invites, the “poke” stood out as one of the platform’s quirkiest features. It was a playful digital tap, a gesture that could mean a lot—or absolutely nothing. Now, Meta is dusting off this piece of internet nostalgia and giving it a 2025 makeover.

Meta announced that the poke is officially returning to Facebook, but this time with a twist. The company has added a more prominent poke button to profiles and introduced a new streak-style mechanic called the Poke count. Much like Snapchat’s streaks, the feature rewards repeated pokes between users with different emojis, adding a layer of fun and competition to the mix.

“Pokes are being made more visible again,” Meta revealed in a post on Instagram, confirming that the feature is rolling out to user profiles in the Facebook app. For those who want to track their poking history, Meta has even set up a dedicated page—facebook.com/pokes—where friends can see their back-and-forth exchanges.

For younger users unfamiliar with its origins, poking was once one of the earliest ways to interact on Facebook. Before reactions, stickers, and endless video content, there were simple wall posts, comments, and pokes. The gesture never carried an official meaning—it could be cheeky, friendly, flirty, or even awkward—but it quickly became part of Facebook’s early culture. Over the years, as the platform grew more complex, the poke quietly faded into obscurity.

That doesn’t mean Meta had completely abandoned it. The company has experimented with reviving pokes several times, noting their surprisingly resilient appeal. In fact, just last year, Meta revealed that pokes were “having a moment,” pointing to a 13-fold surge in usage when the option was made easier to find through the search bar. With numbers like that, the decision to lean further into nostalgia seemed inevitable.

The reintroduction of pokes also ties into CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s broader push to bring back what he calls “OG Facebook features.” Earlier this year, he emphasized that Facebook should focus more on connecting people with their real friends, rather than overwhelming users with algorithm-driven posts from strangers and pages. In that light, the poke—one of the purest expressions of one-to-one interaction on the platform—makes perfect sense.

At the same time, Meta is working hard to make Facebook relevant for younger audiences, who often see it as the digital hangout of their parents’ generation. A quirky, meme-worthy feature like poke streaks might be just the kind of lighthearted interaction to win over Gen Z, who already embrace streaks and gamified communication on apps like Snapchat.

For long-time Facebook users, the return of the poke may feel like a nostalgic blast from the past. For newer users, it could be a fresh, playful way to connect. Either way, Meta is betting that what was once a simple, slightly mysterious button can once again spark conversations—and maybe even capture a new generation’s attention.