Facebook now lets you ask someone out in the most awkward way possible

Consider this Facebook’s new “poke” button.

If you don’t fill out your relationship status on Facebook, a new “ask” button will appear on your profile page. Through this new feature — rolling out now — your friends can ask if you’re single, or taken.

While the ask feature affords friends a light-hearted way to check in on each other’s love lives in private, it also creates a new opportunity for the socially awkward to ask each other out. This is about as elegant as Facebook’s poke button.

For U.S.-based Facebook users, the feature should be available on your love interest’s (or interests’) profiles today.