Replacing the old ‘Facebook Chat’ feature in Facebook in 2011, Facebook Messenger has been around for over a decade now.

Coming in second to WhatsApp on the table of most used messaging apps, over one billion people use Messenger on a monthly basis.

If you’ve been having trouble finding your Message Requests on the Messenger app. We’re here to help. Keep reading to find out how to find Message Requests on the Messenger app.

How to find message requests the Facebook Messenger app

There are a lot of spammers and scammers looking to connect with innocent users via the Facebook Messenger app.

We recommend you don’t engage in a conversation with people you don’t know or those that just don’t look real – though often, these fake connection requests are filtered by Facebook.

Facebook Message Requests are Facebook’s way of filtering messages sent to users by people who aren’t your Facebook friends.

In many cases, these messages are spam or can even be scams – however, they can be legitimate friend requests too. Over time, you may begin to notice your filtered messages build up.

This is to make sure that you don’t accidentally connect with these people – so, Facebook moves these messages to the ‘Message Requests’ section.

However, accessing this section may not be as apparent and obvious as accessing your general chat section.

To check your message requests, take the following steps:

Open the Messenger app
Tap your profile image on the top left
Open “Message Requests”

There are two folders in the message requests section. A ‘You May Know’ and a ‘Spam’ folder.

In the ‘You May Know’ folder, you’ll usually find messages from people that Facebook thinks you may know.

This could be because you have mutual friends who are part of the same Facebook Group, or you’d have some interaction with them over Facebook before.

The ‘Spam’ folder is where you’re likely to find messages from larger organisations or groups.

It’s likely to be someone trying to promote something to you, or something that Facebook thinks is a scam.

The great thing about message requests is that you can either delete them or read them without ever alerting the sender.

You can now go through your messages and delete any you don’t want. You also have the option to block the users.

When you check message requests in Facebook, you do not have read receipts – so the ‘seen’ icon will not be visible to the sender once you read it.

If the message is genuine, once you reply, Facebook will automatically move the message to the general inbox and you’ll be able to access the conversation as normal.

Messenger requests on a deactivated account

If you’ve deactivated your Facebook account, you can still use Facebook’s Messenger app.

Simply sign in using the same username and password that you used for your Facebook account and you should see all of your messages.

However, if you permanently delete your account (or Facebook has deleted it), it will also delete your Facebook Messenger and all of its contents.

Your Facebook and Messenger will be permanently deleted and you won’t be able to log in.

If this has happened to you and you wish to recover your old account, we recommend you get in touch with Facebook’s Help Service to see if they can recover your old information.

Notifications for Message Requests

Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t allow you to set up notifications for Message Requests, so they will never notify you that someone is trying to get in touch with you.

So you’ll need to go through these steps every once in a while to check your message requests. Otherwise, something important may get stuck in your requests folder.

Messages for Facebook Marketplace

A common question that people have about Facebook Message Requests is whether your messages in response to an item you have posted on Facebook Marketplace will go to the message request section.

Since you’re unlikely to be friends with the people who are contacting you, people are often concerned that they will miss messages.

However, you don’t need to worry. Facebook won’t send any messages to your Message Requests if you have an item listed on Marketplace, so you don’t need to worry about constantly checking your Message Requests.

Conclusion

To sum up, Facebook’s Message Requests are an excellent feature, in that you’re not bombarded with nonsense every time you log in.

However, it’s not perfect and you may find that some messages that end up in this section are genuine, so we think it’s good practice to check these every now and again.

Inevitably, spammers and scammers have been coming up with new ways to reach people through messenger for years.

Now, Facebook has tried to come up with ways to keep the genuine messages and the spammy nonsense separate.

However, they haven’t quite perfected this and many genuine messages from people trying to get in touch with you can end up in the spam folder.

It’s good practice to check the spam folder every now and again and make sure that you aren’t missing any important messages.

After all, it could be the love of your life or a career opportunity of a lifetime knocking at your door. So, make sure that you view message requests every now and then to ensure you aren’t missing any messages.