Many people do not know that Facebook has a spam section for messages.
When someone tries to contact you on Facebook, the service does not know whether the message is spam or from someone important to you.
Facebook identifies messages it thinks are unwanted and redirects them away from your inbox. If someone reaches out to you on Facebook, but he or she is not friends with you on Facebook, or friends with any of your friends, the service has to decide whether that message is spam.
Facebook MessagesIf the spam filter catches a message from an unfamiliar user, Facebook will hide that message from you.
The social media network has done this for a while. Facebook users were once able to find the filtered messages in the Other Messages section of Facebook.
Now, the social media service has changed where you can find these messages. You have to know where to look to find them.
Many messages may be spam.They contain advertising or other unwanted information. But you may be lucky and find a hidden treasure.
In many cases, Facebook users are finding messages they wish they had seen earlier. These messages can include people reaching out after they have lost touch with you, business information or other important contacts.
Inspecting your filtered messages is helpful to find out what you have been missing. Chances are, you have not seen all the messages in this secret section of Facebook.
Some people on Twitter were angry about not looking at their filtered messages earlier.
How to Check Your Filtered MessagesYou can check your filtered messages using both the Facebook website and the service's Messenger app.
--Facebook Website
To see your filtered messages, go to your Facebook Home page. Click Messages in the left column under Favorites.
At the top of the Messages page, on the left side, click Message Requests. You will see some of your hidden Facebook Messages.
Next, go to the word More. A drop-down menu will appear. Click Filtered Messages to see your secret messages.
You may see a lot of spam messages you want to remove. To delete a spam message, click the X in the upper right corner of the message.
-- Facebook Messenger App
Open the Facebook Messenger app. Tap Settings in the bottom menu bar.
When the Settings page opens, tap People.
Tap Message Requests.
Tap See filtered requests.
You will then see which messages Facebook kept hidden from you.
Want to remove spam messages? Tap Edit, then tap any messages you want deleted. Tap Delete to trash those spam messages.
Carolyn Mohr wrote this report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
Have you checked your hidden messages on Facebook? Did you find any messages you wish you had seen earlier?
Share your thoughts in the Comments Section below or on 51VOA.COM.
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Words in This Storyspam -n. e-mail that is not wanted : e-mail that is sent to large numbers of people and that consists mostly of advertising
filter - n. computers : software that prevents someone from looking at or receiving particular kinds of material through the Internet