By default, anyone on Facebook can send you a message, and if you set up a Facebook email address, anyone outside of Facebook can send you email. Email from friends and their friends goes directly to your main Messages folder, and everything else goes to the Other folder within your Messages. If an email appears to be from someone you know but we are unable to confirm the sender's address, you will still receive the message, but it will include a warning.

If you’d like to modify who can send you Facebook messages and email:

1. Click the account menu at the top right of any Facebook page and choose Privacy Settings.
2. Next to the How You Connect heading, click Edit Settings.
3. Select your preference from the dropdown menu next to “Who can send you messages on Facebook?”

Only emails from people that fall within the message privacy setting you choose will be delivered to your Facebook Messages. For example, if you select the "Friends Only" setting, you will not receive messages from email addresses that we can't confirm as belonging to one of your friends. Instead, those senders will receive automatic bounce-back replies.

Note: Changes to the "Who can message me" privacy setting may take up to 24 hours to take effect.

When you send someone a message, it gets delivered to the person’s Facebook Messages. A notification appears on the person's home page and may also be sent via email, depending on the person’s notification preferences.

If you exchange multiple messages with a friend, they will appear as a single conversation thread within your friend’s Facebook Messages as well as your own.

To add someone to a conversation:

1. Open the conversation.
2. Open the Actions menu.
3. Select "Add people."
4. Type the names of people you’d like to add. Note that anyone you add will be able to see all previous messages in the conversation.
5. Click the "Add People" button.

Keep in mind that you can’t add people to a private conversation between you and one other person.

To forward a message:

1. Open the conversation.
2. Open the Actions menu.
3. Select "Forward."
4. Check boxes will appear next to each message in the conversation. You can check off the individual messages that you’d like to forward.
5. Click the "Forward" button at the bottom of the conversation.

While you're writing a message, look for these buttons under the message field:

• Click to attach a document, photo or video you've already stored on your computer. Then select the file you’d like to upload.
• Click to attach a new photo or video. If you have a webcam enabled, you’ll be able to take a photo by clicking the blue camera button.

Sent messages cannot be unsent or removed from the recipient's Messages. Keep in mind that depending on a person's notification settings, email notifications containing a message's full content may be delivered immediately after the message has been sent on Facebook.

You can message up to twenty Facebook friends or email addresses at once. However, if you are contacting someone on Facebook you are not friends with via a Facebook message, you can only message him or her individually.

If you'd like to distribute a message to a specific group that you are a part of, you can post on the Group Wall. If the admin of the group has set up a Facebook email address, then emailing that group email address will also generate a post to that group's Wall. All members of the group will be able to see your post, and those members who have allowed group notifications will also receive and email notification about your post.

Facebook has limits in place to prevent behavior that others may find annoying or abusive. These limits restrict the rate at which you can use certain features on the site. If you received a warning for going too fast when sending messages, you will need to temporarily stop this activity to avoid hitting a message block on your account.

For future reference, please keep the following policies in mind:

• Facebook prides itself in protecting users from spam and does not allow users to send messages promoting or advertising a product, service, or opportunity.
• The Inbox functionality is not intended for the purpose of having live conversations with people. If you would like to do this, we recommend using the Facebook Chat feature.
• Unsolicited messages of any kind will not be tolerated.

If you’ve been prevented from sending messages on Facebook, it may be because you have sent a high volume of messages recently or Facebook members have reported your contact as unwelcome. Please note that these blocks can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Please review the Facebook Community Standards while you wait for it to complete.

Once your block is complete, please remember to only send friend requests and messages to people who you already know personally. Otherwise, additional limits may be placed on your account. Keep in mind that it’s possible to run into a block based on how many messages you send and how fast you send them. It’s also possible to be blocked when either starting a new message thread or replying to a message. Deleting old messages will not allow you to send more messages.


Learn more about our policies by reading the Facebook Community Standards.

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