You’re using Facebook Messenger wrong – texts are waiting in hidden inbox

IT MIGHT be one of the world’s most popular chat apps, but Messenger still has a few surprises up its sleeve.

Few users know that Facebook has a tricky-to-locate inbox that’s easy to miss – and yours could be filled with dozens of unread messages.

GettyMessenger has a hidden inbox that not many people know about[/caption]

They’re from people who you’re not friends with on Facebook and are logged as “message requests”.

For some reason, Mark Zuckerberg’s social media behemoth doesn’t send you a notification when you get one – and they don’t appear in your default inbox.

Instead, they crop up in a special “message requests” folder. You can find it in the Messenger app or on Facebook’s website.

On your smartphone, open up the Messenger app and tap your profile picture icon in the top left of the screen.

Scroll down to Message requests – tap on it to see your unread messages.

On desktop, load up Facebook in your browser and click the Messenger icon. Click the three horizontal dots and select Message requests.

If you don’t know the person who’s sent something, Facebook will show you a bit of information about them to get you up to speed.

They won’t know if you’ve seen the message until you reply, so no need to worry about looking rude if you choose not to respond.

Be careful though – once you ping them a message it’ll connect your accounts so you can message one another as if you were Facebook friends.

That’s not the only handy Messenger hack we have for you.

If you want to prevent people snooping on your private messages this quick iPhone trick is a must.

You’ll already be familiar with using Face ID to unlock your phone but it can be used to access individual apps as well.

Many already take advantage of this for things like banking apps and even WhatsApp. Facebook Messenger is no exception.

To lock your chats, open the Messenger app and select your profile photo at the top left.

From there, tap on the privacy tab. You’ll then see an option for app lock. In there, just switch the require Face ID toggle to on.

In other news, Samsung is reportedly killing off its beloved Note smartphone after more than a decade.

Apple has announced that it will let customers fix their own iPhones for the first time starting next year.

The UK is fighting an epidemic of hack attacks targeting consumers and businesses, according to officials.

And, NASA has slammed Russia after a missile it fired into one of its own satellites forced the space station to perform an emergency swerve.

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