Facebook insists new Messages service is NOT email
by Steven Mostyn - Nov 16 2010, 06:30
Hmm, sounds like streamlined email to us. Image: Facebook.
According to Facebook, today’s wealth of Internet-enabled mobile devices allows us to be more connected than ever before through the likes of SMS, chat and email. However, that same wide variety of connectivity options is apparently also serving as something of a fractious communications barrier.
In a move to address the disconnect caused by having to always know which friend or family member uses which particular communication platform, the world’s largest social network has revamped its Messages service so that users need only enter a recipient’s name, type their message, and hit send.
“You decide how you want to talk to your friends: via SMS, chat, email or Messages,” outlined Facebook engineer Joel Seligstein in an official blog post. “They will receive your message through whatever medium or device is convenient for them, and you can both have a conversation in real time.”
“You shouldn’t have to remember who prefers IM over email or worry about which technology to use,” he added. “Simply choose their name and type a message.”
Although keen to point out that its messaging overhaul is not a thinly veiled email platform, Facebook has said it will provide every user with an @facebook.com address so that they can “share with friends over email, whether they’re on Facebook or not.”
Distancing itself even further from conventional email clients, Facebook added that its new Messages service has been modelled more closely to chat insofar as there are no subject lines, no cc, no bcc, and users can send a message by simply hitting the Enter key.
Other new features attached to Messages include a Conversation History that organises and stores every sent and received message for future reference, and a customisable Social Inbox that protects privacy and separates important personal communications from the usual stuff sent by utility companies or banks.
Facebook’s new Messages platform and accompanying @facebook.com addresses will be rolled out gradually over the next few months via invitation.
Learn more about Facebook’s overhaul by watching the video clip below.
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