Facebook is hoping Message Requests will fill a similar role to the Other inbox, but become far more useful. The “Other” folder, which was only accessible on the web, filled up with messages from non-Facebook friends and were often of the creepy variety. You don’t get an alert about messages sent to the Other folder, though, so most people never see them or discover them months after the fact.
Advertisement
And, with Facebook Message Request, strangers need only your name to contact you.
The idea behind “Message Request” is that it will give people a way to contact any user without any obstacle.
According to Facebook Messenger boss David Marcus, the company made a decision to ditch the feature in favor of installing a new feature called “Message Requests“.
Everyone else will need to send a request, and once that request is accepted all future messages will be automatically moved to the main inbox. When you receive a message from someone you’re not connected to, the message will be stored to Message Requests and a special notification will be provided at the top of your inbox. Marcus notes that this is a “foundational development” for the Messenger app, suggesting Facebook could have even bigger plans for those Message Requests moving forward.
Facebook is making it possible to reach out to people who are on the social network but do not have their contact numbers listed.
Facebook has announced it will be removing one of its messaging features.
Such an action will consolidate users’ message inboxes, and the “Other Folder” won’t be there any longer. To be clear, Messages are now rerouted to Inbox if users are Facebook friends and already have each others’ contact information on their respective smartphones or if the two contacts already have an open thread.
Advertisement
The story behind the story: Facebook has much bigger ambitions than just improving the Other inbox. You can check the request to see basic info about that person, like their name, where they live, and any mutual friends you may have. However, anything that distinctly reeks of spam will be discarded of by Facebook right away before it even bothers you with a request.
