Facebook Says Goodbye to Other Inbox, hello Message Requests

Facebook says goodbye to Other Inbox, hello Message Requests. And so will we, once the Other Inbox will be replaced by the Message Requests feature worldwide.

If you’re wondering what the Other Inbox is, that might give you an idea as to why Facebook decided to kill the largely unsuccessful project. This is, better yet was, the purgatory where all messages from non-friends went to die. Many Facebook users didn’t even know of its existence, and those who knew rarely bothered to check.

Perhaps also due to the fact that a large slice of the Facebook users pie access the social network from mobile apps. For mobile apps, the Other Inbox wasn’t even integrated in the messaging box. Thus, a swath of stories of missed reconnections with long lost relatives, missed opportunities to retrieve one’s wallet after it was lost and many others. 

Facebook took a smart approach to this issue and decided to lay the Other Inbox to rest, while introducing Messages Requests. This swap implies that now everyone on Facebook may send you a text. Which will be visible and signaled with the Messages Requests.

While Facebook messages from Facebook friends will continue to enter the usual Inbox and in the already known threads, messages from non-friends are signaled with the Message Requests feature.

While it might sound rather eerie to have all Facebook users on the globe knocking at your door (figuratively speaking), the swap translates in openness with control. Which means that you can choose whom of the non-friends you keep conversing with and whom will suffer the pain of being forever ignored.

Not so much pain, as Facebook doesn’t allow the sender of the message to see that it was read and sent to the Filtered Requests folder. This one is much like the trash bin of spam messages.

The switch from the Other Inbox to the Message Requests is also hailed as the alternative to traditional phone numbers. It’s about a name, not about a number, David Marcus’s post seem to say. Swapping phone numbers is a great way to communicate with a newly met person. At the same time, they’re an avenue for an endless list of stalking possibilities. And a lot of annoying calls from people you might not want to exchange a word with. Ever.

Facebook says goodbye to Other Inbox, hello Message Requests. And throws a little bonus in the play. Once a message from a non-friend enters Message Requests, you’re able to see a short bio of the person. Name, location, job. The sender will not be notified that the ‘credentials’ have been checked. Which allows for effecting filtering of who you choose to talk to or not.

Photo Credits: booleanblackbeltcom.com