Three hidden Facebook tricks almost no one knows about including ‘secret’ inbox

FACEBOOK has three hidden tricks you’ve probably never heard about – and they’re seriously useful.

Despite a slight decline in popularity in recent years, Facebook is still one of the world’s most popular social networks, boasting a whopping 2.91 billion monthly active users.

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That’s almost a fifth of everyone on earth.

Even so, the social media site likes to load the platform with hidden tools and features to keep its more dedicated users engaged and entertained.

Here are three hidden Facebook tricks to help you get the most out of the world’s more popular social media platform.

The hidden inbox

Even if you’ve been on Facebook for a long time and keep on top of your Messenger inbox, there might still be an influx of messages waiting for you that you’ve never seen.

That’s because Facebook has a hidden Messenger inbox that is almost impossible to find.

Inside this hidden folder will be messages from people you’re not friends with on the social networking site and are therefore logged as “message requests”.

For some reason, Facebook doesn’t notify you when you receive these types of messages. Nor does it place them into your default inbox.

Instead, they appear in a special “message requests” folder.

To find this enigmatic inbox folder, head into your Messenger app and select “people” at the bottom of the screen.

Towards the top of this section, you’ll see a symbol that’s a little speech bubble with three dots inside.

This is the message requests folder. Simply tap on it to see your unread messages.

Beware, however, that many of these messages are likely to be spam.

The Your Time feature

It’s quite surprising for a website that’s in slow decline to launch a feature that shows you how much time you’re wasting on it.

There’s no wonder it’s hidden.

But if you are concerned that you spend too long scrolling the news feed looking for the latest family gossip or silly memes your friends have posted, then the Your Time feature will help quash your addiction.

Not only does it allow you to see how much time you’re spending on the app, but it also lets you set limits and receive notifications when you’ve surpassed those limits.

Hidden messenger games

Within the Facebook messenger app, there are certain messages you can send which will unlock hidden games.

Send the soccer ball emoji to a mate and then tapping on it, for example, will launch a keepy-uppy game before your very eyes.

All you’ve got to do is tap on the ball to keep it off the ground.

If ball games aren’t really your thing, try typing “@fbchess play” into a message chat window for something a little more high-brow.

This will launch Facebook’s hidden chess game, which you can play against the person you’re chatting with.

Alternatively, tap the ‘More’ button in the toolbar, and then click the controller icon.

This will generate a list of games that you can play with the friend you’re chatting to.

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