Now it's easier to talk to strangers on Facebook
Hoping to reach out to complete strangers on Facebook? Well, the social media giant just made it easier to connect with people who are not friends with a new feature for the Messenger app called Message Requests.
In the past, messages sent to people who weren't friends were automatically placed in an "Other" inbox. Now, with Message Requests, those "Other" messages will show up as a message requests in the same screen as messages from friends.
"We truly want to make Messenger the place where you can find and privately connect with anyone you need to reach, but only be reached by the people you want to communicate with," wrote David Marcus, who oversees the Messenger app, in a blog post. "Now, the only thing you need to talk to virtually anyone in the world, is their name."
Not everyone is immediately thrilled at the prospect of being directly contacted by anyone. One commenter, reacting to Marcus' post said, "sounds kind of scary ... I don't want to be reachable by any human around."
Marcus asserted that messages from strangers will appear as request notifications, which recipients can view and decide to respond to or ignore without the sender knowing. He stressed that Facebook "will continue to ruthlessly combat" spam attempts.
This is not a "small change," either, Marcus said.
"It's actually a foundational development," he added. "Look for more in the months to come as we continue to improve ways to find the people you want to communicate with."
