Control who can message you on Messenger

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You can choose to receive or not receive message requests from the following:
  • Friends of your friends on Facebook.
  • People on Facebook with your phone number in their phone’s contact list. Remember that someone with your phone number does not need to be a Facebook friend to reach you.
  • Friends using Messenger without Facebook.
  • Everyone else on Facebook and Messenger.
  • If you are an adult based on the laws in your country, you can also choose to receive or not receive messages from Pages or from people in your Facebook groups.

Change your message request settings on Messenger

  1. Open your Messenger app.
  2. Tap Menu, then tap Settings.
  3. Tap Privacy & safety.
  4. Tap Message delivery.
  5. Tap on the group you want to control messages for.
  6. Choose to deliver their messages to your Chats list or to your message requests folder. Or, tap Don’t receive requests to stop receiving their messages entirely.
New group chat message requests won't be delivered to your Chats list.

Who can send messages directly to your Chats list

  • Your Facebook friends.
  • People on Marketplace.
  • People on Facebook Dating.
  • Businesses or Pages you've already connected with, such as by previously messaging, commenting on a post where they can reply with a direct message, actively engaging with the business website after clicking on its ad or opting in to receive their messages either on or off Meta technologies.
  • People replying to your Messaging Ads.
Anyone else you haven’t chatted with before can only send you message requests and can’t call you unless you reply to their message request. However, if you join a group chat with them, they will be able to call and message you within the context of that group chat.
Learn how to check your message requests.

Spam messages

Messages likely to contain spam may be filtered on Facebook and Messenger, even if they come from people you’ve allowed to send you message requests or messages to your Chats list. This spam filtering won't affect messages from your Facebook friends, but may apply to other messages you receive through Messenger.
Learn how to give feedback on or report a conversation or how to block messages and calls from someone on Messenger.

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