Find your unseen messages in Facebook’s other hidden inbox – CNET

Last year, many a Facebook user was surprised to learn of the “Other” inbox, a dumping ground for private messages from people you don’t know or haven’t friended. The big problem: You never received notification when one of these messages arrived.

Later in the year, the service phased out Other in favor of something called Message Requests, but it was largely aimed at users of the Facebook Messenger app. At least it showed notifications when new requests came in.

But, lo and behold, Facebook is still holding out on you. There’s yet another inbox of sorts that’s even more tucked away than the first one. And it may be holding all kinds of important messages (or it may be all spam). Here’s how to peek inside the desktop version; mobile instructions follow below.

Step 1: Open Facebook in your browser.

Step 2: Click the Messages icon that’s in the blue toolbar.

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Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

Step 3: By default, it shows you the Recent list; click Message Requests, then scroll down and click Filtered Requests.

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Never knew these were there. Sorry, people who tried to reach me on FB!

Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

(Another way to get there: In the left-side toolbar, click Messages, then the More pulldown and then Filtered Requests.)

If you’re mobile, fire up the Messenger app, tap Settings > Message Requests, then See filtered requests.

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Et tu, Messenger app?

Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

As I said before, you might find yourself looking at messages Facebook legitimately filtered as spam, or you might discover important contacts who thought you were ignoring them.

Either way, it’s probably a good idea to check this inbox on a regular basis to make sure you don’t miss something important.

In the meantime, yo, Facebook: How about a better system of dealing with messages like these?