Do you know the “Other” inbox from Facebook? Don’t worry, even if you do or even if you don’t, Facebook will shut down the “Other” inbox. The main reason behind this change is because “Other” seems to have had multiple reactions from all Facebook users and we are here to see what those were and what’s changing. It’s all part of Facebook’s plan to make things more “social”.

Up until now, you could receive messages from the people you did not know and you were not friends with in “Other”. But this inbox has never actually been an efficient one because of two main reasons: it was not visible and it was pretty distant. I looked in this inbox once and I saw that someone who I was supposed to be a colleague with wanted to befriend me and he started talking to me a lot. The only problem was that there was no notification about this and I saw it 7 months later.

Then there is this distancing factor, because if you are not friends with someone, do you really want to talk to them? Answers can be both yes or no here and there are no right answers. It all depends on each user. Maybe someone wants to talk to you or they don’t. It’s completely up to them and, if they also do not see it, you’re wasting your types for nothing.

Facebook acknowledged that the visibility thing was a problem, so now every message will come in as a “request” from anyone you do not know. They will be visible, but you will be able to choose freely whether to see them or not. As a side note, the people developing the system were pretty worried about the spamming, so this is why they implemented the choice feature as well.

There have also been debates about what you actually need to talk to someone via Facebook and that only thing is their name. This is non-intrusive and it practically solves two issues at the same time: the one who wants to talk to you cannot say that you didn’t see the message and you can also claim that it was your choice not to talk to them (and not Facebook’s because it limited your visibility).

While Facebook will shut down the “Other” inbox, the people behind this project are still trying to provide the best service possible and the best alternatives, so the subject is still open for debate.

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