Can You Send a Facebook Message Without Being Friends

Affiliate four. Sending Messages to Friends

Just like your email program, Facebook lets you transport private letters to other Facebook members. "Cracking," y'all're probably thinking, "merely what I need: nonetheless another inbox to bank check." Just before you lot skip to the next chapter, y'all might want to requite these tools a adventure.

First off, Facebook makes exchanging messages expressionless uncomplicated—even easier than regular email. And then at that place are the slightly zany—merely slightly addictive—ways to keep in touch with others that no electronic mail program tin match. In an endeavor to mimic the dissimilar means we interact with people in existent life, Facebook lets you poke (give a virtual "Hey, how ya doin'?" wave to) friends; write on their virtual message boards; and send silly digital gifts. Even if you're non persuaded by any of this, it's still worth understanding the messaging organisation since, soon enough, y'all'll no doubt get a Facebook message from one of your friends.

Sending Messages

Lots of websites offer free Spider web-based email, and Facebook is one of them—sort of. As a Facebook member, y'all can send individual messages to any other Facebook fellow member (whether or not they're on your Friend List), and to regular electronic mail addresses. But only other Facebook members tin send you Facebook letters. In other words, when you register for Facebook, you don't get a YourName@Facebook.com e-mail account; people accept to sign up for Facebook and follow the steps beneath if they want to send a message to your Facebook inbox.

Sending Messages to Friends

Nigh of the messages you send, of course, volition be to people you already know. Facebook gives y'all a simple ready of tools that will look familiar to anyone who's used email before. Hither's what yous practise:

1. At the tiptop of whatever Facebook screen, click the icon that looks similar two speech bubbles, and then in the driblet-down menu that appears, click the "Send a New Message" link . Or, if you're on your Abode page, click Messages link on the left side of the screen and so click the "+ New Bulletin" button on the right side of the page that appears. Either way, Facebook displays the New Bulletin box.

   

2. In the "To:" field of the Etch Message box, showtime typing your friend's name (if she's a Facebook member), e-mail address (for non-Facebook members), or the name of a Friend List (Confirming Requests in Facebook) . As soon as you begin typing, Facebook displays a list of your friends and Friend Lists. To select a name, click it or use the upwardly and down pointer keys to select the name, then hit Enter. If you're sending a message to a not-Facebook member, simply type in the person'southward full e-mail address. You can add multiple recipients, if you similar; only click after you enter each i and then first typing again. (Meet Sending a Message to More Than One Person for more on sending messages to multiple people.)

   Why would you want to apply Facebook to send a message to someone who's not a Facebook fellow member? Two reasons: First, you're already in Facebook and don't have to waste matter time switching over to your email program (or can't, if you're using someone else'southward computer). Second, you want to lure this non-member friend into your Facebook social circle by giving her a sense of taste of Facebook'south coolness. When your friend clicks the Facebook-generated "Click to Answer" link in your e-mail, she's whisked to a Facebook page she can use to preview Facebook messaging, likewise equally to become more info and sign up.

   Tip

   Later you've added a recipient's proper name, y'all can delete it by clicking the X Facebook displays subsequently it, or past striking the Delete primal.

   

3. Fill in the "Subject field:" field and then type your message . If you want to laissez passer along a link to a website (or to a photograph or video on the Web), mouse down to the Adhere department and click the photograph, video, or link icon. When you cease, click Send.

4. If a security box like the one on Signing Up for an Account appears, blazon in the security words you see and then click Submit . Facebook sends your message and stores a copy in your Sent messages, which you tin can view by heading to your Home page, clicking the Messages link on the left, and so clicking the Sent link that appears beneath it.

Sending Messages to People You're Not (Even so) Friends With

Facebook lets yous send a bulletin to whatever Facebook member, even if she's non on your Friend List and doesn't vest to whatever of your networks.

Note

In that location's i exception to this rule: If a Facebook fellow member blocks you (Fighting Dorsum), you can't contact him on Facebook—by sending him a message, poking him, or any other mode.

To transport a message to a non-friend Facebook fellow member:

1. Head to either the profile of the person you want to contact, or the person'due south listing on your search folio (Finding Friends) .

2. Click either the "Transport [Name] a Bulletin" link (which yous detect on a person's profile beneath their picture) or the "Send a Message" link (which y'all find in search results) . Whichever link you click, up pops the Compose Message box shown on Sending Messages to People You're Not (Yet) Friends With. Simply type your message and send it off every bit explained in the previous section.

Sending a Message to More than Than One Person

Because Facebook was designed to aid people communicate online just as they do offline, the site makes information technology easy to send a message to an individual—but a niggling harder to ship the same message to dozens of people all at once. If yous go too far down that path, the Facebook design team reasoned, y'all're talking spam. After all, how oft exercise y'all whip out a bullhorn and address a real-life crowd of dozens?

Facebook decided to cap the number of people yous can send a bulletin to at twenty, and so y'all can use the basic bulletin-sending instructions on Sending Messages and type in a combination of Facebook friends' names and electronic mail addresses to send your bulletin to up to 20 people. Another option is to create a Friend Listing (Creating a Friend List) containing all the people yous want to send the message to. Then, on the Etch Message box, caput to the "To:" field and blazon the name of the list. But if y'all endeavor to send a message to a Friend List that includes more than twenty people, Facebook will brandish a "Cannot add together list" message and remind you of its 20-person limit.

Note

An exception to the no-spam rule is that Facebook lets you send the aforementioned message to every member of a Grouping (Affiliate 6)—although even and then, Facebook theoretically caps the number of recipients at 5,000. (The cap is theoretical considering some Facebook members have had their accounts suspended for sending letters to a lot fewer than five,000 people.)

Receiving Messages

When someone sends you lot a message via Facebook, two things happen:

• You receive the message in your Facebook inbox . To warning you that y'all have a message, Facebook displays a little red box above the Messages icon at the superlative left of any Facebook screen (the icon is but to the right of the word "facebook"). To open your inbox, caput to the top of your screen and click the Messages icon, so click Run across All Messages; if you're on your Domicile page, y'all tin can also click the Messages link on the left side of the screen. Then click either the subject area line or the first line of whatever message to meet it in its entirety.

• You lot receive the bulletin in your regular email plan . Facebook sends the bulletin to your chief email accost.

Note

Your principal email address is the one you used when you lot registered for the site (unless you've changed it since then). To modify your primary email accost, at the top of whatsoever Facebook screen, mouse over Settings and choose Account Settings; on the screen that appears, click Email.

Tip

If you spend a lot of time on the site and regularly check your Facebook inbox, you don't really demand to take Facebook messages sent to your regular email address, too. To make information technology so yous only receive Facebook messages in your Facebook inbox, caput to the Email Notifications page (to get there, simply click the "Want to control which emails you lot receive from Facebook?" link at the bottom of any email Facebook sent to your regular e-mail accost) and turn off the checkbox adjacent to "Sends me a message".

Viewing Your Facebook Inbox

It's easy to tell if you have a new Facebook message even without opening your inbox. Just have a look the blue carte du jour bar at the acme of whatsoever Facebook screen. If you see a cherry-red number right above the icon that looks like two little speech bubbles (it's the second icon to the right of the word "facebook"), you lot've got a new message (or two, or more). Click that icon and a list of your most contempo messages appears. To meet your full inbox, click the See All Messages link at the bottom of the list.

Facebook puts a big blueish dot in front end of any message you lot haven't read nonetheless, and highlights the entire list in light blue. Facebook automatically lists all your letters, fifty-fifty ones you've already read. If you only want to see the ones you oasis't read, click the word "Unread" in the upper-right part of your screen. Clicking a sender'southward name or picture shoots yous directly to that person'due south profile, which is handy if you don't recognize him.

Annotation

A little left-pointing arrow in front end of a message listing means y'all've replied to the message. Clicking the X on the right side of a listing deletes the thread that message belongs to. (A thread is a agglomeration of messages with the aforementioned subject line.)

Reading and Responding to Messages

To read a message in your inbox, click either the subject line or beginning line of the message and Facebook displays the whole message.

Tip

A especially cool feature of Facebook's inbox is that when you display a bulletin that's the latest in a long, drawn-out, dorsum-and-along thread, Facebook zips you downwardly to the most recent message so you lot don't take to read through the long listing of exchanges and hunt for the latest one.

To answer to the message, simply type your response in the Reply box, then click Transport. To delete the message without replying, click the Delete button nearly the tiptop of your screen.

Chatting

Facebook's congenital-in chat feature lets you send messages to friends who are online when you lot are. Because chat messages—unlike regular Facebook messages—pop upwardly on your friends' screens immediately later on you ship them, they're handy for exchanging quick updates. ("Hey, we still meeting for lunch in 5 minutes?" "Aye, I'm headed out the door now!")

To send a chat bulletin:

1. At the bottom correct of whatever Facebook screen, click the button . The number that appears in parentheses beside the word "Chat" tells you how many of your Facebook friends are currently logged into the site (and, therefore, how many folks you tin potentially ship conversation messages to).

2. In the Chat window that appears, click the name of the friend you want to chat with . A green dot beside a person'south proper noun means that person is logged in and active. A green crescent moon ways the person is logged into Facebook, but hasn't typed anything in a few minutes (and and so may exist out getting a cup of coffee).

   

3. In the person-to-person window that appears, type in your message and then hit Enter . As soon as yous do, your message appears on yous friend'south screen in a like person-to-person conversation window.

4. Send additional conversation messages, if you desire, past repeating step 3 . When you lot're finished with your conversation, yous tin hibernate the chat window by clicking anywhere on the blue bar that runs across the superlative of it.

Note

Because chat messages tin can popular upwardly on your screen, they can be seriously annoying. To keep super-communicative folks from being able to conversation with y'all, put them on a list (Organizing Your Friends) named, say, SuperChatties. And so, in the Chat box (at the bottom of any Facebook screen, click Chat), click the Friend Lists tab and make sure the checkbox side by side to the SuperChatties list is turned on. And then when SuperChatties appears in the chat box, click the green-and-white Go Offline icon (it looks like a capsule on its side) to the correct of the list'due south proper name. Doing so hides the fact that you're online and, therefore, "chattable" from everyone on the SuperChatties listing and changes the green-and-white Go Offline icon to a grey-and-white Go Online icon (which you can click when you're in the mood to field one of those long-winded conversations). If you don't feel like chatting with anyone, in the Chat window, click the Options tab and then click Become Offline.

When someone sends you a chat bulletin, Facebook plays a sound and up pops the Chat window, where you see the sender's profile movie forth with their bulletin. To reply, simply type your bulletin in the bottom of the window and hit Enter.

Tip

You can customize the Conversation window so that it stays upwards all the fourth dimension instead of popping upwardly, and so that it doesn't play a sound every time someone chats at yous—both of which are useful if you wait to do a lot of chatting. In the Chat window (at the lesser of whatever Facebook screen, click Conversation), click Options. Then turn off the checkbox side by side to "Play Sound for New Letters" and plough on the checkbox next to "Keep Online Friends Window Open".

Poking

Poking sounds a lot more provocative than it is. Giving someone a poke in Facebook is nothing more than the electronic equivalent of request someone, "Hey, what's upward?" Pokes appear equally a "You were poked by [name]" message on the recipient'southward Home page.

Tip

Poking—like sneaking upwards behind someone and tapping her shoulder—isn't really good for much across the yuk factor. Depending on you and your pals' tolerance for friendly nudging, poking either gets the honour for Silliest Social Help or Most Annoying Thing Ever. If you're in the latter camp, yous'll notice notifications (Customizing Your Mini Feed) similar just more useful.

Annotation

You lot can poke any Facebook member—you don't have to be friends with the pokee or vest to the same network. But if you poke someone who doesn't normally take access to your profile, be aware that he'll be able to encounter the basic, work-, and teaching-related portions of your contour for a week postal service-poke. But letting a pokee see your profile is rarely a problem. After all, if you're that worried somebody might discover your passion for the Bay Metropolis Rollers, you shouldn't poke him in the first place.

To poke someone:

1. Find the person you want to poke by viewing your Friend Listing (Viewing a Friend Listing) or using Facebook's Search box (Finding Friends) .

2. Click the "Poke [proper noun]" link on the person's profile (Finding People Who Are Facebook Members) . The link is below the person's picture.

   

3. In the confirmation box that appears, click Poke . You lot briefly see a "You have poked [name]" message, and the harm is washed: Your poke message appears on the pokee's Dwelling house folio, consummate with a link she can utilise to poke you dorsum.

Writing on Walls

One of the sections on every Facebook member'southward contour is a forum called the Wall. A Wall is a place for your Facebook pals to share interesting photos, videos, websites, and graphic symbol insights. By default, the simply people's Walls you tin can write on are your own and your friends'. But since Walls are part of profiles, anyone who tin view your contour can see your Wall letters. You can remember of Walls equally a 21st-century version of the dry out-erase message boards they used to accept in dorm rooms: an informal place to brag, tease, show solidarity, get attending, and occasionally impart useful information.

Tip

You lot tin can observe several Facebook applications (such as FunWall, SuperWall, and Graffiti) that let you add photos, video clips, and even virtual spray paint to your friends' Walls. Flip to Facebook Applications: An Overview to learn about applications.

Writing on a Friend's Wall

Writing on someone'south Wall is a more public manner of expressing yourself than sending your friend a bulletin, because all your friend'south friends will meet your Wall mail (unless you lot retrieve to tell Facebook to go on it between you and your friend, equally explained on Writing on a Friend'south Wall). Practiced candidates for Wall posts include thanks, congratulations, birthday greetings, and other tidbits your shared connections might find interesting or useful.

Tip

To write on your own Wall, follow the steps below, simply start at your own profile instead of a friend's. If you similar, you can adjust who sees the stuff you put on your ain Wall past clicking the Options link (await just below the Share button on your contour) and so clicking Settings.

To write on a friend'south Wall:

1. On your friend'south profile, make sure the Wall tab is selected. Y'all should see a text box that says "Write something…" If you don't see the text box, y'all're out of luck: Your friend has restricted access to her Wall.

   

2. Type your bulletin in the text box .

3. If you want to upload a photo or video, send a gift (Sending Gifts), or add a link to a website, head to the Attach department and click the icon for what you desire to add together . (Mouse over each icon for a quickie clarification.) Depending on which icon you click, Facebook displays additional fields and instructions for completing your attachment.

   Tip

   You can skip typing in the http:// part of the website address if you like—Facebook automatically adds it for y'all.

   

4. If y'all decided to share a link, choose which thumbnail you want to accompany your link . Facebook pulls a site description and a scattering of thumbnails from the site for yous to cull from. To bank check out the diverse thumbnails, click the arrow buttons that appear. To skip the graphic, plough on the No Thumbnail checkbox.

   Tip

   If you change your listen about sharing a link, click the X in the upper-right function of the Link box.

   

5. Optionally, tell Facebook who you want to let view your bulletin. Unremarkably, your message can be viewed past your friend also every bit all her friends, merely you can restrict access to but your friend (or merely her friends) by clicking the Filters link .

6. Click Share . Your bulletin appears on your friend's Wall.

Annotation

Some Facebook applications (Facebook Applications: An Overview) let you attach other stuff to the messages you post on people'due south Walls. The Graffiti application, for case, lets you decorate your friend's Wall with virtual spray pigment.

Responding to a Wall Post

When someone writes on your Wall, yous can accept a chuckle and get out information technology at that—or you lot can respond in 1 of the following means:

• Write something on the affiche's Wall . Clicking the "See Wall-to-Wall" link below the person'southward post displays a history of your and your friend's posts to each other's Walls, and lets y'all add a new post.

• Respond to the mail service on your own Wall . Clicking the Comment link skips the back-and-along history and simply lets you type in your response. Clicking Similar adds your name—accompanied past a thumbs-up icon—to the postal service.

  

  Annotation

  Depending on the content of the Wall post, you may see boosted options, such as Share (which lets you email the Wall post to other buddies).

• Delete the mail . Y'all can delete whatsoever post from your own Wall, no affair who posted it. To do then, mouse over the post until the Remove link appears on the right side of the postal service, click Remove, and then click Delete in the confirmation box.

  Tip

  You tin can also delete letters you've posted on a friend's Wall. To do then, go to that person's profile, scroll down to the Wall postal service you want to go rid of, and then click Remove.

Sending Gifts

A Facebook gift is a virtual greeting card–style icon yous tin send to someone, accompanied by a personal message. You can cull from hundreds of professionally designed graphics, about of them of the smiley-face up-and-teddy-bear multifariousness. Subsequently you lot ship a gift, it appears on the recipient'south profile—in the Gifts department, on the recipient'south Wall, or both, depending on whether you decide to make the gift public or private.

Note

The occasional exchange of gifts is function of what of what makes any proficient relationship tick—online and off. In recognition of this, Facebook has fabricated it piece of cake for members to give each other not just virtual gifts, just music clips, charitable-donations-in-the-name-of gifts, and even actual, physical gifts (recall chocolate!).

Facebook charges for its gifts in credits. Currently, 1 Facebook credit will ready y'all back ten cents, and the boilerplate virtual gift costs 10 credits ($1); you pay by entering your credit carte du jour or cellphone number at the end of the gift-giving procedure. (Real-life gifts, equally y'all may have guessed, run anywhere from a bit to a lot pricier.) To get around the $1 price tag for virtual gifts, cheque out the Free Gifts awarding (see Facebook Applications: An Overview).

Annotation

As this book went to press, there were rumors that you'd presently be able to pay for Facebook credits using PayPal, so don't be surprised if you see that option, also.

To send someone a Facebook gift:

1. On your profile, scroll down until you lot see the Gifts section (y'all may have to click the blue Gifts header to see the whole Gifts section), and so click "Give a Gift" .

   

2. On the page that appears, start typing in the "Choose your recipient" field and then, from the list of friends Facebook displays, cull the person you desire to transport the gift to .

3. In the "Choose your gift" department, find the gift you want to give, and then click it . First select the general type of gift yous want to requite by clicking the advisable header: Music and MP3s, Virtual Gifts, and so on.

4. In the "Add your message" section, type the note (if any) you want to accompany your gift .

   

5. In the "Method of delivery" section, decide whether to hide your message from prying eyes . Nobody'due south going to be embarrassed by an "Attaboy, Ralph!" or a "Happy Graduation, Linda!," merely some of the more…specialized icons may reflect poorly on the receiver—especially if she uses Facebook to go gigs or conduct business. When in uncertainty, choose Individual. When you send a gift privately, everybody who can run across the recipient'southward profile tin can see the gift, but only the recipient can see the accompanying note and who sent it.

   Tip

   If you receive an embarrassing gift, y'all tin hibernate your whole Gift section. To exercise and so: On your profile, click the pencil icon that appears on the right side of the blue Gifts heading. And so, in the drop-down list that appears, click Remove Box.

6. Click the Give Gift button .

7. Fill out your credit carte du jour info, and then click the Complete Buy button . If Facebook already has your credit card details (if, for case, yous've previously purchased an advertizing on the site), yous don't have to type it in once more.

   Alternatively, instead of giving Facebook your credit card info, you can select the Mobile Phone pick and enter your cellphone number. Facebook then texts yous a Pivot number which you enter into Facebook to confirm that you accept the charge, and the amount gets added to your cellphone bill. This selection makes it frighteningly easy to buy gifts without even having your credit card handy.

   

   Facebook displays a box letting you know the gift has been sent (and that your credit card or cellphone account has been charged).

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Source: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/facebook-the-missing/9781449380168/ch04.html

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