Consider yourself warned: Don’t be surprised if you are charged for sending a message on Facebook. This news comes as the social network tests a new messaging system wherein users who try to contact people outside of their network will have to pay one US dollar, according to a report by CNN.
Essential messages go directly to the inbox, while spam and those from strangers will be placed in the “other” folder. To circumvent this, users have to pay one US dollar so that their missives will go straight to the recipient’s inbox, said AllThingsD.
Facebook explained that the new system could aid people who plan to message someone about a job or to contact strangers they want to befriend, provided they’re willing to pay one dollar. Moreover, requiring users to pay could reduce spam and unwanted messages.
Several researchers and commentators believe levying a fee on the sender could effectively discourage unnecessary messages and could speed up the delivery of important missives.
But for now, the new system is being tested by a select number of users from the US. This feature is also not yet available for companies, and users can only avail one paid outgoing message per week to prevent abuse.
Moreover, Facebook is also launching new filter options for the inbox. This includes Basic Filtering, wherein typical messages from your friends and extended network will go straight to the inbox. On the other hand, the Strict Filtering setting will only allow messages from your friends.
Aside from that, this new system enables a user’s @facebook.com e-mail to receive missives from Android applications.
