Facebook allows you to control who can send you messages through your account’s privacy settings. You can choose to allow messages from everyone, friends only, friends except acquaintances, or only people you have previously interacted with. Adjusting these settings allows you to filter out unwanted messages and spam.
Why Would You Want to Limit Who Can Message You?
There are a few key reasons why you may want to limit who can send you messages on Facebook:
- Avoid spam and unsolicited messages – By limiting messages to friends only or customizing your settings even further, you can cut down on random friend requests, sales pitches, phishing attempts, and other unwanted messages in your inbox.
- Protect your privacy – Opening up your inbox to anyone allows strangers to contact you directly which raises privacy concerns. Limiting messages helps keep your profile more private.
- Manage message volume – Facebook messaging can quickly get overwhelming if you have a public profile with thousands of followers. Customizing settings makes your inbox more manageable.
- Focus on key connections – For many users, Facebook messaging is a way to stay in touch with real friends and family. Limiting messages helps clear out the noise.
While an open messaging policy allows for meeting new people, limiting messages is recommended for most users to maintain privacy and control.
How to Limit Who Can Message You on Facebook
Adjusting your Facebook message settings is simple to do through the Facebook app or website profile:
- Click on the arrow in the top right corner of Facebook and select “Settings”.
- Choose “Privacy” from the left menu.
- Go to the “Messages” section.
- Under “Who can send you messages?” choose one of the following options:
- Everyone – Any Facebook user can message you.
- Friends – Only people on your friends list can message.
- Friends Except – Friends can message you except acquaintances (people added to your friends list but you haven’t confirmed you know them).
- People You Followed or Requested to Follow – Only people you have interacted with can message.
- No One – You cannot receive any messages from anyone.
- Click “Confirm” to save your settings.
These new message settings will take effect immediately. Existing message conversations will not be impacted – only new messages will adhere to the updated restrictions.
Other Facebook Messaging Settings
In addition to limiting who can message you, there are a few other Facebook message settings to be aware of:
Filter Message Requests
This setting automatically filters out messages sent to your inbox by people you don’t know. These messages will be sent to a separate message request folder for review.
Show Messenger Shortcuts
This places a shortcut to frequently messaged friends in your sidebar for quick access. Disable this if you don’t want messenger shortcuts always visible.
Turn Off Active Status
By default, Facebook shows when you are active or recently active on messenger. Disable this if you want your online status to be private.
Manage Block Settings
Block specific users from messaging you or see a list of users you have blocked. You can also control whether blocked users are notified they are blocked.
Message Delivery Settings
Customize whether you want messages to be filtered by Facebook before they reach your inbox. Filtering helps detect spam, offensive language, scams, and more.
Messaging on Facebook Mobile Apps
The messaging settings above all apply to both the Facebook website and Facebook mobile apps for iOS and Android devices. However, there are a few additional mobile messaging options:
Notifications
Under your app Notifications settings, you can disable notifications for new messages completely or customize notifications based on sender (friends, specific groups, etc).
Message Requests and Filters
Like on the website, you can review your pending message requests and filtered messages on the mobile apps by tapping on “Message Requests” under your inbox.
Swipe or Delete Conversations
On your main messages screen, you can swipe left on a conversation to archive, mute, mark as unread, or delete the thread.
Report/Block
Tap and hold a message thread to access options to report, block, or turn off notifications for that conversation.
Facebook Messenger App
The Facebook Messenger app has its own separate messaging settings as well. If you primarily chat through the Messenger app, you’ll want to configure settings there as well:
- Tap your profile pic > Privacy & Support > Message Controls.
- Manage Active Status, read receipts, typing indicators, who can message you, and more.
- Review blocked accounts, filtered requests, and discovery settings.
Adjusting these will only affect your Messenger messaging – your main Facebook app messaging settings will remain unchanged.
Can You Message Someone Who Has Limited Messages?
If another user has customized their message settings to limit who can reach them, it will restrict your ability to message that person.
- If you are friends, you will only be able to message if their settings allow friends to message them.
- If you are not friends, messaging them will depend on their specific message restrictions.
- If messaging is blocked altogether, your message will not go through.
- You may see an error that your message could not be sent or that the recipient has limited who can message them.
The other user won’t see or be notified of your attempted message. If messaging is important, try connecting as friends first or have them adjust their settings.
Message Settings for Facebook Pages and Businesses
Facebook Pages have their own messaging settings that are handled separately from a personal Facebook profile.
As a Page admin, you can control:
- Who can send messages (everyone or only people who like the Page)
- Whitelist specific users to message even if broad messaging is disabled
- Moderate or autoreply settings
- Whether the Page is shown as “available” and can immediately receive messages
Adjusting these settings helps manage engagement for Pages with large audiences. Default settings may allow messaging from everyone to build an audience.
Best Practices for Customizing Message Settings
Here are some best practices as you consider customizing your Facebook message settings:
- Periodically review settings and adjust as needed. Your preferences may change over time.
- Use the most restrictive settings that still allow communications you want.
- Leverage custom settings like Friends Except to precisely filter messaging.
- Consider a small friends list with tighter restrictions if overwhelmed.
- Test messaging from secondary accounts if unsure of a setting’s impact.
- Report spam or abusive messages even if already blocked.
- Monitor message requests and filters to ensure you see important messages.
Conclusion
Limiting who can send you messages on Facebook is an important way to protect your privacy and manage interactions. Take advantage of the many options to filter messages to your comfort level by following the steps to customize your message settings.