Facebook Defaults To Facebook Email Addresses

Facebook has risked attracting the ire of users by using their @facebook.com email address as their default address.

In late 2010, the social network assigned all users a Facebook email address, which is created using either their custom URL or a random number.

The move is being seen an attempt to increase the adoption of Facebook’s unified inbox, Facebook Messages, which combines emails, instant messages and SMS messages into one place, but which has so far proved unpopular.

Ambush introduction

It has come to light that Facebook has been updating email address since April and claims that it is rolling out a setting that will give people the chance to decide which address they want to show on their timeline.

However Lifehacker has outlined a simple method of achieving this using the existing settings. To change a public email address, users should hide their Facebook.com address from their Timeline and replace it with another one.

This is done by going to a profile’s ‘about’ page, clicking ‘edit’ and then clicking the circle next the Facebook address and changing the setting to ‘hidden from timeline’. Users should then click the circle next to another address and choose ‘shown on timeline’, before clicking the save button.

Facebook Messages was initially touted as a Gmail beater,  and although Google’s Eric Schmidt said that he welcomed the competition, it has not emerged as a genuine rival. A poll revealed that 62 percent would not use it as their primary email source.

One reason given for its unpopularity is concerns about security, with many noting that Facebook’s inconsistent attitude towards privacy might mean many were unwilling to let it see their email as well.

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