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AbstractGaze‐following, the tendency to direct one's attention to locations looked at by others, is a crucial aspect of social cognition in human and nonhuman primates. Whereas the development of gaze‐following has been intensely studied in human infants, its early ontogeny in nonhuman primates has received little attention. Combining longitudinal and cross‐sectional observational data from Barbary macaques at 'La Forêt des Singes', we show here that gaze‐following among conspecifics develops within the first year of life with a rapid increase between 5 and 6 months, reaching adult levels at 1 year. Sex, rank, and relatedness of the animal whose gaze the subject followed did not affect gaze‐following rates. Interestingly, however, the behavior was enhanced in all age classes if a gaze‐cue was accompanied by a facial expression. Furthermore, the effect of facial expressions had a modulatory influence on the ontogenetic trajectory of gaze‐following, suggesting that it is of functional significance in the development of the behavior. Follow‐up analyses revealed that one specific facial expression that is given in response to social interactions between third parties was particularly efficient in eliciting gaze‐following responses, indicating the importance of cues that are able to guide the acquisition of social information. Taken together, these results suggest that the development and the operation of gaze‐following are tuned to the social and physical characteristics of a species' environment.