You can use WhatsApp and/or Facebook Messenger for connecting with friends(they are both owned by Facebook) but using Facebook per se seems less and less appealing especially when it became bloated with non-friend content. Zuck is tho introducing or reintroducing "friends feed" so that might serve people better[0].

[0] https://www.theverge.com/news/637668/facebook-friends-only-f...