Will I be using the new Facebook Messages – well of course (but I caveat that with the latter part of my post). To have all social comms centrally held in one place is without doubt very compelling – to be able to send SMS via Facebook could be useful, attaching external docs – yep that’s something I would use considering I’m planning a wedding. I use Facebook more than any other channel to communicate to my core group of friends so I can only see this as a positive enhancement. But this is the thing – this tool is for me and those friends I talk to all the time on Facebook, those friends that I have already grouped together as ‘core contacts’, those friends that I regularly see, face to face – what I’m basically trying to get at, is this really a game changer? The answer has to be no.

All the other communicating I do is naturally tailored to the recipient – if it is a work colleague or someone outside my personal friendship circle (for instance, wedding suppliers) I will use phone and email (work, hotmail, gmail, LinkedIn). If it’s family – again phone/email (non – Facebook contact). If it’s someone else – ‘friends’ that I went to school with but haven’t had any contact with in the last ten years, I am unlikely to use Messages. To date I would politely ‘like’ their comments and uploads, perhaps leave a comment on their Page but to actually get into a conversation with them just doesn’t happen. The reality is that the majority of people I’m connected I don’t need to (or want to) have an ongoing conversation with them. I like my channels of communication online. Facebook is 100% part of this portfolio but I’m struggling to see why this is so revolutionary. In fact, with all the issues around Facebook privacy, coupling this with even more sharing is bound to make a few users nervous (despite the opt-in nature of the service) – is Facebook a brand you trust? Not really.

Now I know that Facebook are not positioning this as an ‘email service’– but by giving users @facebook.com ‘address’ this IS email just with other social additions. I wonder if this is yet another new service that really adds benefits or over complicates what was originally a wonderfully simplistic channel. Time, of course, will tell.