Your friend has posted a perfect photo of you two on Facebook. You want to reply to him/her with something related but don’t want others to read about it. Here’s when you can use a PM feature on Facebook.
There are many ways you can communicate with your friends on Facebook. You can have a chat on someone’s post, either your or your friends, leaving others to read and enjoy your postings, Or you can choose to PM on Facebook.
Also read: How to delete messages on Facebook Messenger
Difference Between PM and DM on Facebook
PM is a short form for personal and private messages between two users on a platform. A PM on Facebook can also be called DM, short for direct message. PM on Facebook is a feature that helps to send messages directly from one person to another without anyone else knowing about it.
Private messages ensure user security as the chats are only visible between the two, and others can not see those messages. They are helping you maintain your privacy.
Facebook also allows you to customize your account’s privacy settings. This setting can help you turn off the PM feature to stop other users from annoying you. This way, other people may be unable to send you a private message. If you want to keep the PM in Facebook option to be operating but only limited to some users, the site also gives you that option.
We have explained below how you can change the settings of your Facebook account to change PM in Facebook settings. But before that, let’s see how you can send a private message.
How to send a PM on Facebook from a Smartphone?
To send a PM on Facebook from your Smartphone, you can follow the simplified steps below:
Step 1 – Navigate to your Facebook on your iPhone or Android.
Step 2 – Select your profile icon on the top right corner of your news feed to open your profile.
Step 3 – After landing on your profile page, you can scroll down until you find the friends section.
Step 4 – In the friends section, select See all friends.
Step 5 – After selecting the ‘See all friends’ option from the list, you can now find and pick one account to send PM on Facebook. To do the same, click on their username to open their profile page.
Step 6 – On their profile page, find and select the Message button below their profile picture.
Step 7 – After selecting ‘message, ‘ you’ll be directed to Facebook Messenger, where you can send PMs to your close friends and loved ones.
Step 8 – You can now type your preferred message and hit Send.
How to send a PM on Facebook from a Desktop?
To send a PM on Facebook directly from your Mac or PC, you can head over to Facebook and log into your account.
Step 1 – If you don’t log in automatically, you need to enter your login credentials manually and land on your Facebook homepage.
Step 2 – After landing on your Facebook news feed, you can navigate to the right-hand side menu where you need to find and select the friends list (It could be replaced with the name Contacts.
Step 3 – In the friends list, find and select the Facebook profile you want to PM.
Step 4 – After opening their profile, find and select the message button under their profile picture, and you’re done.
Step 5 – You can now PM them whenever you want.
How to send a PM on Facebook from Messenger?
Sending messages directly from your Facebook messenger is one of the easiest ways to PM on Facebook.
To do the same, you can simply type your friend’s username on the search bar on your Facebook messenger and type your message.
After typing your preferred message on Facebook Messenger, you can now hit send to send the message.
Please note that all the messages sent from Facebook Messenger are end-to-end encrypted, so you don’t have to worry about privacy concerns.
How to customize your privacy settings for PM on Facebook?
As you may have seen in the steps above it is easy for anyone on your friend’s list to private message you. But there may be a reason you want to stop receiving PM on Facebook altogether or only through those whom you allow. Follow the below steps to customize your privacy settings to control private messages on your message box.
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Login to Facebook via the Website on your browser
Step 1 – You have to follow the steps to log into your account on Facebook.
Click on the Settings option.
Step 2 – On your browser, click on the carrot symbol on the top right-hand side of the page. Select the Settings and Privacy option and then click on the Settings option or directly click here to migrate to the page.
Click on the Privacy section and scroll to the Messages section
Step 3 – Once you click on Privacy on the left panel of the Facebook web app, scroll to the Privacy Settings and Tools section until you can see a How you get message requests subsection at the end of the page
Edit your preferences to customize PM on Facebook
You can find many options to work on in How you get message requests.
Step 4 – The first option gives you the option to decide whether you want the new message requests on your Chats list or your “Message requests” folder or whether to receive them at all. This belongs to messages only from potential connections, i.e. your contacts, friends of friends on Facebook, or Instagram connections.
The second option gives the same options but for the users who you may not know on Facebook or Instagram.
Conclusion
These were some customization options you can control on PM on Facebook. Try them out to see if these settings help you reduce unwanted and annoying private messages on Facebook.