While browsing Facebook on a sunny afternoon, you came across someone’s profile who seemed familiar, but you couldn’t recall where you knew them from. This piqued your interest, and you began to explore their profile, looking at their recent status, posts, photos, and comments.
Eventually, you decided to connect with this person, but upon returning to their profile, you were disappointed to discover that there was no option to add them as a friend. This left you feeling stuck and unsure of what to do next. Despite searching for advice on Google, you found yourself repeatedly landing on the same website with unclear instructions—leaving you no closer to solving the problem.
If you are still feeling unsure about what to do in the same situation, there’s no need to worry!
Find out the reasons why the ‘Add Friend‘ button does not appear on one’s profile and get to know what you can do to connect with someone you know in this article.
The Friend Request Button on Facebook
With 2.963 billion users worldwide, no wonder that Facebook had reached its global scale as of 2023. Facebook is a free social networking app and website that has grown a lot in popularity over the last decade.
Facebook users can like, comment, and share their life happenings, check-ins, interests, and hobbies on their profile.
Over the years this app has helped people connect to their friends and families as well snake their business known to the world through the services like marketplaces and groups on Facebook.
One of the most prominent features of Facebook is ‘Friend Requests‘ where people add other users to their friend lists by tapping the ‘Add Friend‘ option on their profile.
However, many profiles do not have this option displayed beside their username on Facebook.
As a Facebook user, you may have come across some profiles whom you’ve wanted to add to your friend list but there is no option to add them as friends. This is because the user has changed their privacy settings that way.
How do you send a friend request on Facebook when there is no option?
Well, you cannot send a user a friend request if there is no option.
Since the user may have changed their privacy settings to limit only friends of friends to send them friend requests. This means only users who are friends of friends of the profile will see the “Add Friend” option.
Another way to add them to your friend list is to drop them a message via the Messenger app.
However, if you’re not even added to their mutuals, there is a high chance that your message will go into the spam folder of their messenger app.
It is a way better option to avoid adding strangers in the first place, but if you know a person whose profile does not have an “Add Friend” option, first, just drop a message or you can send a request to their mutual friend and if the mutual friend accepts your request you’ll see the “Add Friend” option on the users’ profile.
How do you send a friend request on Facebook?
Sending a friend request on Facebook is very easy. You just have to follow the steps mentioned below:
- If you are sending a request from your phone log in to your Facebook app.
- Once you log in, take a look at the top side of the screen where you’ll see the search bar.
- Now type in the name of the person you want to send a friend request.
- As soon as you type their name, Facebook will show you the names of profiles with the same name.
- Once you’ve located the right name, simply tap on it.
- In case the person you’re searching for doesn’t appear in the result, click on the search symbol beside the search bar. You’ll find several profiles with the same name.
- Once you spot the right person tap on the “Add Friend” icon beside or under their name.
- After tapping the button, you’ll notice that the button will be changed to “Friend Request Sent“, indicating that the request is already sent to the user. It is up to them to accept or reject your request by deleting it or just leaving it there pending.
- You’ll receive a notification if the user accepted your request.
How do you know if someone deleted a friend request on Facebook?
Visit the user’s profile. If you see the ‘Add Friend’ option on his or her profile if they have rejected your friend request.
However, if they have not deleted your request It would read ‘Request Pending’ when you visit their profile.
One good thing about making friends on Facebook is that it never restricts you from sending messages especially if you wanted to be noticed by the user to whom you sent a request.
Simply tap the button next to the ‘Add Friend’ and it will be redirected to Messenger where you can leave a message for the user.
How does Facebook sharing work?
You can post a variety of things on Facebook, including images and links. However, posting content on Facebook differs slightly from other types of online networking.
The information you post on Facebook is more public than it is on email or instant messaging, which means that more people will typically see it.
It’s necessary to remember that Facebook is meant to be more open and sociable than conventional communication tools, even while it has privacy options to assist you to restrict who can see the stuff you share.
Here is a table summarizing the privacy settings on Facebook:
| Setting | Description |
| Public | Posts visible to anyone, including people not on Facebook |
| Friends | Posts visible only to Facebook friends |
| Acquaintances | Posts visible only to a specific list of friends designated as Acquaintances |
| Only Me | Posts visible only to the user |
| Custom | Ability to customize the visibility of posts for specific individuals or lists |
Note: Privacy settings may vary depending on Facebook’s updates and available options in different regions.
How can you remove the ‘Add Friend’ option from Facebook?
Disabling the “Add Friend” option from your profile is a simple solution to help you get fewer friend requests.
Select Privacy from the Settings menu, then click ‘How People Find And Contact You.’ Select Friends of Friends under who can send you friend invitations. This will prevent users who don’t have any friends on your list of friends from seeing the ‘Add Friend’ button.
Unfortunately, you cannot disable the “Add Friend” option on Facebook against everyone.
To put it another way, it is impossible to dodge inquiries from friends of friends. You may, of course, reject or ignore those requests.
How can I convert the “Add Friend” button on Facebook to the “Follow” button?
Typically, the “Follow” option is disabled when a new Facebook profile is made. As a result, you can only receive friend requests and private messages in your inbox from other Facebook users.
No one can follow you because of the default settings, therefore no one will be able to see your public postings as a newsfeed in their timeline.
You may, however, switch the “Add Friend” option on Facebook to the “Follow” button.
On the profiles of persons who are not your Facebook friends by default, the “Add Friend” button is visible. The following steps can be used to convert this button into a ‘Follow‘ button:
- Go to the settings section of your Facebook account and choose “Followers” from the menu on the left.
- Choose ‘Public‘ from the list of options under the ‘Who Can Follow Me‘ section.
- Click the ‘Save Changes‘ button by swiping it down.
- Following these modifications, you will have a “Follow” button instead of the ‘Add Friend‘ button on your profile, allowing users who are not friends on Facebook to follow you and view your public postings in their news feed.
Please take note that just your personal profile’s ‘Add Friend’ button will be altered by this.
On the accounts of other users who have not changed their own “Who Can Follow Me” option to ‘Public‘, the ‘Add Friend’ button will still be there.
You must be 16 or older to allow followers; if not, just change your birthday.
Conclusion
- Facebook is a place to make connections, share stuff and get friend requests from many users, however, some profiles do not have an ‘Add Friend’ option on their profile.
- You cannot send a user a friend request if there is no option.
- If you become a mutual friend of the user’s friend on Facebook then you may be able to send them a friend request.
- The information you post on Facebook is more public than it is on email or instant messaging, which means that more people will typically see it.