That’s a great insight. I totally agree that early Facebook’s ability to surface actual connections was valuable before it turned into an endless recommendation machine.

The challenge is figuring out how to offer just enough discoverability that doesn't creep users. I like your idea of an opt-in, time-limited, depth-1 search, it keeps things intentional while reducing friction. Definitely something to think about.

Curious: would you see value in a simple "import contacts" option, or do you think that would risk overstepping?

As long as it is isnt intrusive. Both LinkedIn and Facebook have done this to me at some stage or another, and I get endless prompts to try again, and theres also a bunch of users on those platforms that are now recommended to me because of the search.

It would be useful to identify my friends but I dont want a loose thread of some guy I emailed 20 years ago to constantly bug me.