Users have discovered hundreds of messages locked in a hidden inbox within Facebook’s messaging system.
The inbox, accessible on the web or Facebook Messenger apps for smartphones and tablets, is part of Facebook’s filtering system, designed to catch spam and other unwanted messages.
However, users, including myself and others within the Guardian, have discovered their “filtered” inbox full of legitimate messages that never made it to the main inbox or Messenger app.
The simplest way to access the inbox is to navigate to facebook.com/messages/other on the desktop.
Within the Messenger app the hidden inbox is buried under four menus. To get to it tap Settings, then People, then Message Requests and tap on the “See filtered requests” link.
The filtered messages include anything attempting to send you messages that you have manually filtered out as unwanted, as well as messages from people who are not connected with you on Facebook. I discovered some tens of messages dating back as far as 2008.
Ugh. Always check your Facebook filtered messages. #LessonLearned pic.twitter.com/ycSe1luDsS
— Benjamin Siemon (@BenjaminJS) April 8, 2016
Most of the time you can safely ignore it - Facebook built the system to stop messages you want to see being sent to spam – but it can also trap messages such as those informing you of a friend’s death or a story tip that ends up in filtered and hidden from your Facebook-obsessed eyes. Even for MPs.
Eek! Just looked at the 'filtered' message thing on Facebook and seen there are literally thousands of messages... https://t.co/LSKyFcWN7f
— stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) April 7, 2016
