After all the talk about Facebook coming up with a new mailing service that might threaten the existing e-mail clients like Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail, the air has finally been cleared by Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who announced a new messaging system instead:

“This is not an email-killer. This is a messaging system that includes email as one part of it.”

That’s it. All speculation put to rest. There was never an email-killing service in the wings; rather the company was working on an upgrade in the existing messaging system of which e-mailing is also a part. Facebook has not given the update a new name and it will still be called… well, ‘messages’. The main feature of the service is that it will combine all Facebook-related messaging and communication with an option of including the Facebook.com e-mail as well.

This makes one fact clear, that Facebook employees will be making a shift regarding their official email address from the Facebook.com domain to the newly acquired fb.com.

Here’s a look at what the new messaging feature will offer users:

• Real time conversations will be a possibility no matter which medium you choose to communicate through. Be it e-mail, messages or chat you can send and receive a message through any medium. No longer does a user need to remember if a contact is available on e-mail or on chat – all you need to do is send the message and it will fall into the right medium for your contact.
• Now, you can revisit all your conversations with the added conversation history feature.
• The inbox is built around the ‘social’ factor. Any messages you receive from your Facebook friends will fall into the inbox. However, communication from your bank will fall into a folder titled ‘Other’ which you can move into the inbox and have all future mails directed to that folder.

It will take a few months for all the upgrades to roll out and be fully functional. Facebook will be sending invitation messages to users for the new Message service. Interested users can also visit the information page here http://www.facebook.com/about/messages/ and request an invitation.

Also read:

Facebook May Use its Fb.com Domain To Create Dedicated E-mail Account