All of us have discovered the awkwardness of Facebook Messenger’s ‘Other’ Inbox by now, but did you know there’s another hidden one that might be even worse?
Facebook has an automated spam filter that stops annoying messages getting into your friends’ messages, and keeps them separate from both your inbox and your other inbox – unless you click a well-hidden button.
If you open Messenger, then Settings and click on People, then Message Requests, then “See filtered requests” you’ll get to the treasure trove. Most of mine were nothing more than spam, but the remainder is a bunch of very important messages I’d completely ignored for months.
I had a number of messages from old friends getting in touch, a neighbour and even a family member that went completely ignored because I hadn’t even known this area existed. There’s no clear way to find it, unless you knew it was already there.
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When I tweeted about this, others messaged me to say they’ve found similar in theirs: everything from missed business opportunities to an offer for an all-expenses-paid trip to speak at a conference.
The filtered inbox is intentionally well buried to relieve you of having to read all that annoying spam, but hell, it’s made life awkward for me now – I have to try and explain to each person I wasn’t snubbing them on purpose, but that Facebook’s algorithm decided it for me.
Doesn’t sound that believable, huh?
I encourage you to check out your filtered inbox and see if there’s anything awkward you’ve ignored too – let us know if it’s just as bad for you in the comments.
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