Making Room for Real Friends on Messenger: Removing ‘Suggested’

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Written by: Alex Popa

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Making Room for Real Friends on Messenger: Removing ‘Suggested’

Unfortunately, you can’t fully remove the “Suggested” feature on Messenger. What you can do, instead, is remove suggestions from non-friends.

To do that:

  1. Open Messenger
  2. Tap on your profile picture
  3. Go to “Phone contacts
  4. Select “Upload contacts
  5. Select “Turn off
  6. Go to “Manage contacts
  7. Select “Delete all contacts

This will keep your “Suggested” section active, but you’ll only receive suggestions from Facebook friends. I’d say that’s a good compromise considering it’s the only thing you CAN do…

Confused by all these steps above? Don’t worry, below I’ll give you a detailed breakdown and will add screenshots as well that will make it easier for you to follow along.

As for every guide I create for you, I will manually check out the problem and go through all the solutions. Based on that, I’ve created the below write-up and images. 🙂

Step 1: Tap on Your Profile Picture

Messenger chats page showing the Profile icon highlighted in the top-left corner

The very first thing you should do is open the Messenger app. Once you are logged in, you should look in the top-left corner for your profile picture. And then lastly, tap on your profile picture.

This will open your Messenger settings page!

Step 2: Select “Phone Contacts

Messenger settings showing the "Phone contacts" option selected

After tapping on your profile picture in the top-left corner, scroll down until you find the “Phone contacts” option and select it.

Step 3: Select “Upload contacts

Messenger "Phone contacts" page where the "Upload contacts" option is highlighted

After you open the “Phone contacts” page, you’ll see two options, “Upload contacts” and “Manage contacts”.

Select the first option – “Upload contacts“. This step is necessary because you don’t want Messenger to re-upload your contacts after you delete your current ones, right? Right!

Step 4: Select “Turn Off

Messenger "Upload contacts" page where the "Turn off" button is highlighted

You are now on the “Upload contacts” page.

Here, select the “TURN OFF” button to disable the automatic contact upload on Messenger, which will stop the app from fumbling with your contacts all the time.

Step 5: Go to “Manage Contacts

Messenger "Phone contacts" page where the "Manage contacts" button is selected

After you stop Messenger from re-uploading your contacts, return to the previous page and select “Manage contacts“. Now we’re getting down to business!

Step 6: Select “Delete all contacts

Facebook Messenger "Manage contacts" page showing the "Delete all contacts" button highlighted

The “Manage contacts” page will explain the contacts you’ve added on Messenger and how they can interact with you.

To delete the phone contacts from Messenger, select “Delete all contacts” at the bottom of the page. And you’re done. What a journey, right?

The “Suggestions” tab won’t show people who aren’t your friends on Facebook anymore. Instead, you’ll only receive suggestions from your Facebook friends or people you’ve messaged on Messenger.

You can also see unsent messages on Messenger – just follow the linked guide.

If you have any questions or suggestions, comment below, and I’ll try to help you. Until then, stick around for other guides on your favorite social media platforms!

And if you have managed to read this guide until the very end (you are one of the few! 😀 ), then maybe also check out my write-up on how to fix the “You have been temporarily blocked from performing this action” Messenger error.

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Alex Popa

My name is Alex and I have a knack for social media in all its shapes and forms. I’ve dealt with such things for quite some time and I noticed that many people have issues with social media and technicalities.

Unforeseen errors, bugs, and other problems make their use of social media problematic. These things will be discussed amply in the guides on Whizcase.

I'll present the facts as they are, and offer quick and easy solutions for them.

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