Facebook kills off @facebook.com email service, cites low usage for demise

Facebook is putting its “@facebook.com” email service to rest three years after its launch. The company has said that the email service is being killed off because of lack of usage.   The Verge has reported that Facebook is starting to send out mails to Facebook users who signed up for the email service that they will no longer receive mails within their Facebook inboxes. Instead, says Facebook, it will forward these mails to your primary email address that you have on record with the social networking service.   The reason, Facebook in a burst of honesty added, was that “Most people have not been using their @facebook.com email addresses”. The social network says that it wanted to make it easier for users to access their emails in one place. Not mincing words, Facebook added that killing the email service off will only help it concentrate better on improving its mobile messaging service for everyone.   Facebook had launched the email service back in November 2010 as an attempt to let you see emails from friends and family in one place – a social one – rather than “sandwiched between a bill and a bank statement”. The email service had been a pretty basic but sending emails using Facebook never really caught on.   The social network’s email was also a bit of a hassle to work around. While Facebook would throw messages sent by strangers into the “Other” inbox, it didn’t take much to figure out someone’s Facebook email ID and send them a mail instead. Facebook would make sure that even if the primary email ID was hidden on the user’s profile, the Facebook email ID was prominently displayed.   Facebook’s only folly was that its email service lacked a different email interface and wasn’t as well advertised as its other features like Messenger and Graph Search. For now, it doesn’t look like users will be missing out on a lot when Facebook’s email shuts down; the occasional mail will still be found in your inbox.