Facebook’s hidden Inbox

I was inspired to write this article about Facebook’s seemingly invisible inbox after seeing a post about this from Toby Hadoke.  Apparently he had only just discovered that Facebook had been keeping messages from him.  I quickly realise from the replies to his post that other Facebook users had, had a similar problem.  So naturally I began to wonder if there were people out there using Facebook that were also unaware of this problem.  So I felt it was my duty to educate Facebook users everywhere about the “Hidden Inbox”.

Basically Facebook about a year or so ago quietly introduced a kind of SPAM filter.  Which works a bit like the one most of us are familiar with in e-mail clients.  Depending how your privacy setting are set, it means that if someone is not on your friend list messages goes to this other inbox but you may be unaware of this as unlike your regular inbox you won't get any notification.  But don’t fear there is a solution.

First go to “Messages” on the left panel click on “Messages”.

You will see on the left at the top Inbox, click on “Other”.

On the left click on “Edit Preferences”.

Select “Basic Filtering” then click “Save”, this will now mean if someone's not on your contact list you are less likely to miss their message.  If however you’re worried about SPAM and don’t wish to get annoying messages about Viagra  or the like then “Strict Filtering” maybe the way to go.  You just have to remember to check the hidden  Inbox from time to time.  It should also be noted you can select a message and select allow so any future post from that person will go to your regular Inbox in future without necessarily  adding them as a contact. 

Well I hope people find this article helpful.  I would like take this opportunity to thank Toby Hadoke for inspiring me to write this article.