You’re probably thinking what’s the fuss, you’ve been able to message people you’re not friends with for quite some time.

Ah, you are correct, but those messages have been destined to skip their Facebook Messages section and land in a separate inbox labelled ‘other’. What’s worse is that those messages never sent a notification, meaning they could sit there unattended while your sense of rejection takes hold.

Facebook are revamping things and their new feature is called Message Requests. Mashable reports:

With Message Requests, which is rolling out over the next several days, Facebook is streamlining how these types of messages are handled. Messages that previously would have been sent to “Other” will now appear within Messenger as a message request. Users can read the message and choose whether or not they want to respond without the other person knowing.

“Now, the only thing you need to talk to virtually anyone in the world, is their name,” writes David Marcus, who heads up Messenger at Facebook. In his Facebook post, Marcus notes that the new feature will only apply to new messages from people you don’t already know. Messages from Facebook friends, friends who have your number saved in their phone and those with whom you’ve already exchanged messages with, will still go straight to your normal inbox.

I think the key bit is that the sender doesn’t know you’ve read it – none of those blue ticks that force you to interact with other people.

Good news or a sure-fire way for creepers around the world to do their thing? I guess time will tell…

[source:mashable]