Friant and her two sister ships were ordered as part of a major construction program directed against France's Italian and German opponents in the Triple Alliance, and they were intended to serve with the main fleet, and overseas in the French colonial empire.

In September, she was moved to French Morocco to join a group of cruisers patrolling for German commerce raiders.

She ended the war having been converted into a repair ship based in Morocco and later at Mudros to support a flotilla of submarines.

The plan called for a total of seventy cruisers for use in home waters and overseas in the French colonial empire.

[3] The ship's propulsion system consisted of a pair of triple-expansion steam engines driving two screw propellers.

Her original, heavy military masts were removed, along with her four 47 mm guns to reduce weight high in the ship.

The exercises took place in two phases, the first being a simulated amphibious assault in Quiberon Bay, and the second revolving around a blockade of Rochefort and Cherbourg.

[9] She took part in training maneuvers with the rest of the squadron that year, which were conducted from 6 to 26 July in conjunction with the local defense forces of Brest, Rochefort, Cherbourg, and Lorient.

Suchet and the bulk of the squadron were tasked with intercepting the coastal defense ship Bouvines, which was to steam from Cherbourg to Brest between 15 and 16 July.

This scenario saw the protected cruisers Sfax and Tage simulate a hostile fleet steaming from the Mediterranean Sea to attack France's Atlantic coast.

Unlike the previous exercises, Friant and the rest of the Northern Squadron successfully intercepted the cruisers and "defeated" them.

[20] Friant was in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, in late July when war became imminent and the French naval command recalled her to rejoin the fleet.

[21] Upon arriving back in France, she was assigned to the 2nd Light Squadron, which at that time consisted of the armored cruisers Marseillaise, Amiral Aube, Jeanne d'Arc, Gloire, Gueydon, and Dupetit-Thouars.

The division tasked with patrolling the sea lanes off the coast of northwestern Africa and protecting merchant shipping from commerce raiders.

[23] On 29 July 1917, Friant was decommissioned at Lorient, and the French naval command ordered that she be converted into a depot ship for submarines on 6 December.