Facebook Announcement: It’s Not Email, But it is Messaging
At a press conference in San Francisco this morning Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the world’s largest social network company was preparing to launch a “modern messaging system.”
The move is a smart one for Facebook, as it was recently revealed that the number two app on the social network is Microsoft Live Messenger, despite nearly four billion messages passing through Facebook messaging each day.
According to Zuckerberg, the new system offers three parts that include seamless messaging, conversation history and a social inbox. The “social inbox” feature is “not email” but rather a way to sort what messages you see from friends.
While it’s “not email” Facebook is passing out Facebook.com email addresses to all of their users. The idea is simple, users can receive messages through the system in email form (which kind of makes it email) but the main function will be to deliver seamless messaging.
The move from a modern day conversation standpoint makes sense with many younger audiences ditching email in place of SMS, MMS and Instant Messaging. Zuckerberg said that in his talks young students said email was too slow for their rapid and constant use.
It’s still to be seen exactly what the new system will entail, but given Facebook’s ability to create streamlined processes I expect something new and in the “now.”
More to come as it’s revealed.