Once upon a time, we all used to stick a stamp on an envelope and mail a letter to the people we communicate with. But as time went on, some considered this “snail-mail” far too slow and EMAIL was born. But nowadays, a much younger generation has begun to consider email far too slow, preferring a more instant communication, such as SMS Messaging. Well, Facebook has heard their cries.
Yesterday, Facebook announced a brand new modern messaging system that CEO Mark Zuckerberg says is not email, but looks promising to soon replace it. Instead of sending your best friend an email with photos from your recent vacation, then a text message from your iPhone for an invitation to lunch, then a Facebook message with an interesting video or news story found in your news feed, now you can do it all from one place, in real time, with a threaded history of your conversations:
ONE-STOP MESSAGING
The new Facebook feature will incorporate emails, Facebook messages, SMS, as well as other chat clients into one. Meaning, instead of having some chats here or some emails there, your entire conversation with an individual will become part of one unified and threaded stream. Facebook intends to give all its users an @facebook.com email address, where you will have the option to redirect your Gmail, Yahoo, or other messages to. And to send someone a message, there will be no subject lines or hunts for the correct email address. You simply click the person you want to communicate with, type the message, hit the Enter key, and Facebook will take care of the rest — sending the message as an email, an SMS, and/or a Facebook message.
THE SOCIAL INBOX
Facebook will also introduce The Social Inbox, which will sort all your personal messages into 3 categories: people you are very close to and communicate with regularly; people who are just acquaintances whose messages have a lower priority; and people who you just don’t care to hear from. So by default, you will only see messages from your friends (and friends of friends). But any junk messages (from people outside of your Facebook circle), will go into a separate folder. You will have the option to move people from one folder to the other, and you can also choose to bounce any email from those who are not your Facebook friend, into a Junk folder.
In the roll out announcement, Zuckerberg was quick to point out that this won’t be the “Gmail killer” some in the media speculated it to be. But Facebook is certainly looking toward the future, at a generation that’s steadily growing impatient with email and is pushing us all into an age of instant communication. And that suits Facebook just fine, since they already see immeasurable future possibilities in become a one-stop communications hub.
The new service will begin a slow roll out immediately for some, with much wider availability over the next several months for all. Expect for it to grow and change over time as users point out the positives and negatives sure to follow.
Not sure if I trust Facebook with all of my emails. This will be a wait and see.