Facebook has altered the way Messenger users receive messages from people on their friends’ list and strangers by replacing the ‘other’ messages folder with message requests.
This means that when you get a message from someone in your contact list, it goes straight into your inbox and you can continue conversation by replying or may desire against it by ignoring the message.
Conversely, when a message is sent from someone you do not have on your friends’ list, instead of it going into ‘other’ folder where you may not know that such a message has been received, it displays as a message request.
This is especially useful in combating spam messages as they are automatically filtered out as requests.
According to a statement by a Facebook representative, David Marcus, “We truly want to make Messenger the place where you can find and privately connect with anyone you need to reach, but only be reached by the people you want to communicate with.”
“The rule is pretty simple: If you’re friend on Facebook, if you have each other’s contact info in your phone and have these synced, or if you have an existing open threat, the new messages from that sender will be routed to your inbox.
“Everything else will now be a message request, minus spam attempts that we will continue to ruthlessly combat.”