We’ve seen some version of this indicator all over the place for years, but the newest home for Facebook’s green dot indicator seems to be directly in the news feed. Appearing right next to the users’ name inside a news feed story, Facebook’s green dot lets users know that the person is online and ready for messaging. Here’s what it looks like:

We spotted this test on an account that has the new news feed, and were unable to find a similar icon inside the mobile news feed. I’ve reached out to Facebook for comment and will update when I hear back.

UPDATE: Facebook confirms that they are running a limited test to put “presence dots” in the news feed. For now, that test is only for desktop.

You may recognize that little green dot from Facebook’s chat sidebar on both desktop and mobile. There, the green dot for availability is accompanied by a mobile device icon that signifies that the user has Facebook for iOS or Android downloaded, so they have the ability to see messages on their phones.

Way back in 2011, Facebook added the chat indicator next to users’ names on their profiles (the old profiles, way before Timeline).

“The system of paying to message non-friends in their inbox is designed to prevent spam while acknowledging that sometimes you might want to hear from people outside your immediate social circle,” said Facebook in a statement.

This is an expansion on a months-old test that first originated in the U.S. back in December of 2012. Facebook began to test the “paid messages,” which allow users to pay a small fee to ensure that the messages they send reach the intended recipient’s inbox.

Note it’s their inbox that we’re shooting for – not the “other” folder. That’s Facebook’s version of a spam folder, and it houses messages deemed spammy or unimportant, based on a sorting algorithm.

The Telegraph reports that U.K. users are seeing a sliding pay scale for celebrities that quotes a message price based on their number of followers and message competition.

“We are testing a number of price points in the UK and other countries to establish the optimal fee that signals importance. Part of that test involves charging higher amounts for public figures, based on the number of followers they have. This is still a test and these prices are not set in stone,” said Facebook.

It’s likely that any message a random Facebook user sends to a celebrity with millions of followers or even someone that they simply don’t know and is way outside their network will be relegated to the “other” messages folder. With this test, Facebook is giving users a way to make sure that these messages reach the main inbox.

Although it could be seen as Facebook giving people a way to pay to spam you, Facebook has always said that it’s about reducing spam.

“Several commentators and researchers have noted that imposing a financial cost on the sender may be the most effective way to discourage unwanted messages and facilitate delivery of messages that are relevant and useful,” said Facebook when they first launched the test.

Facebook has begun the U.S. rollout of VoIP calling in their Messenger app, after testing the feature for nearly two weeks in Canada. The VoIP calling in Canada came along with an update to the app that saw all users gain support for voice messaging (which works a lot like Facebook voicemail). Facebook said that the VoIP calling would come to U.S. users if everything went over well, and apparently that’s happened.

Sorry, Android users. It’s currently only a Messenger for iOS thing.

To receive the VoIP calling functionality, simply open up your app. If the feature has been rolled out to you, you should see a “Free Call” button once you tap the “i” icon on the top right of open message threads. You don’t have to download an update.

It is a “free” call, if you are using Wi-Fi. But the Facebook Messenger voice calling with also use cellular data when no Wi-Fi is present, so it will eat up your current data plan a bit.

Free VoIP calling isn’t anything new, but it is pretty big news when it lands on a Facebook app. Of course, the benefits of using Facebook Messenger to make voice calls are that it’s free with Wi-Fi and can be used anytime an internet connection is present – even if you’re experiencing a vortex or terrible cell reception.

This is all part of a push that Facebook is making to better assert itself into the world of mobile communications. Last month, Facebook began allowing users to use Facebook Messanger for Android by simply signing up with a phone number with no Facebook account required. They also unveiled a new app called “Poke,” which allows users to send convert video, photo, or text messages that self-destruct after a given period of time. Now, their Messenger app is a bigger player in the game with voice messaging and voice calling.

[via The Verge]

What about $100? Holy hell I know, right? $100? To simply put your message in a more visible position? Apparently, some users are being given the option to send a message to Mark Zuckerberg’s inbox for that price.

That figure is part of a small test subset that Facebook is running to test their new paid messages feature that they first unveiled to the public back in December. Back then, Facebook launched the paid messages test, which gives users the ability to pay a small fee (at the time $1) to ensure that their messages reach other users’ inboxes – instead of winding up in the “other” messages folder that nobody ever really checks. The “other” folder is pretty much Facebook’s version of an email spam folder.

The paid messages would only become an option when users try to message other users outside their network (friends or friends of friends). Facebook said that it would be a way to cut back on spam, saying:

“Several commentators and researchers have noted that imposing a financial cost on the sender may be the most effective way to discourage unwanted messages and facilitate delivery of messages that are relevant and useful.”

But, it could also be seen as Facebook letting people pay to spam your inbox. And maybe that’s why Facebook is testing a $100 price point to send a single message. “We are testing some extreme price points to see what works to filter spam,” Facebook told Mashable, who first spotted the extreme test.

It’s unlikely that Facebook would rollout $100 messaging options globally; this is clearly what they said it is – and extreme test. But it’s interesting to see what the company is doing to test the spam-blasting capabilities of the new product.

First up, the new voice messaging. It’s exactly what it sounds like. The new Messenger app now features a big red record button inside the conversation stream. All users have to do is hold down the botton, record their voice message, and let go when they’re done. As of now, voice messages are limited to one minute.

The voice messages will appear directly in the conversation stream, alongside text messages.

Next, Facebook is also testing VoIP calling from the Messenger app – but only in Canada and only for iOS users. Canadian iOS users cannot make voice calls to Android users or U.S. users. Like all of Facebook’s location-specific tests, if it goes over well, you can expect it to roll out to more locations eventually.

The new VoIP calling is free, kind of. It will use up the data on your mobile plan. Canadian iOS users can access the feature by pushing the “i” icon within a conversation.

Count this as another attempt by Facebook to grab some more messaging market share. Last month, Facebook began allowing users to use Facebook Messanger for Android by simply signing up with a phone number – no Facebook account required.

And just a couple of weeks ago, Facebook unveiled their new standalone “Poke” app that takes on Snapchat. It allows users to send self-destructing text, photo, or video messages.

The Messenger updates for iOS and Android are currently rolling out.

[via TechCrunch]

Both of these improvements were warmly received. Other “improvements,” such as that creepy “message seen” feature, were considerably less-appreciated. Either way, Facebook is trying, you have to give them that.

I’m not sure this latest test is going to help their cause.

Facebook is testing (note, testing) a product that will give users the ability to pay to ensure messages sent to other users outside their network reach that users’ inbox, and not wind up in that “other” folder (Facebook’s version of a spam folder). That means you can pay a small fee ($1) to bypass Facebook’s messages sorting algorithms and place your message in the inbox of someone you don’t know.

“Several commentators and researchers have noted that imposing a financial cost on the sender may be the most effective way to discourage unwanted messages and facilitate delivery of messages that are relevant and useful,” says Facebook.

It could also be seen as Facebook letting people pay to spam you.

But Facebook said it could come in handy if you wanted to reach out to a potential employer, let’s say, who wasn’t your friend and who wasn’t even in your network of friends. That’s a good point, but it’s unclear just how willing a users would be to pay to make sure someone simply sees their message in their inbox. I guess it would be the same population that would pay to promote their own post.

Of couse, this is just a test. Facebook does tons of tests all the time, and most of them never see primetime. But then again, they usually don’t announce these tests in blog posts.

The pay-to-message test isn’t the only announcement coming out of Facebook today. They’ve also added new filtering options to Messages. First, “Basic Filtering,” which is pretty much the same as the previous “friends of friends” setting. Most of the message you’ll see will come from your friends and people you may know.

Second, “Strict Filtering” simply allows for messages from friends to hit your inbox.

Facebook does say that some new types of messages may appear in your inbox that wouldn’t before today:

With filters, the following types of messages may reach your Inbox that before would not:

Someone using Messenger for Android, who is not on Facebook but has your contact info in their phone, wanted to send you a message; A friend of a friend wanted to include you in a message about a party along with some of your mutual friends; A friend wanted to send a message to your @facebook.com address.

But it’s these paid messages that I’m sure most users will be talking about. Facebook says that they will “continue to iterate and evolve Facebook Messages over the coming months.”

Facebook is no stranger to user privacy scandals. Scenarios involving information sharing and user tracking have popped up in the last couple of years. The FTC has even stepped in and performed their own investigations.

And recently, it was revealed that Facebook actively patrols user communications for unlawful activities. Is this a privacy betrayal from a company that sits on so much personal information about the country’s inhabitants? Or is it a social good that allows Facebook to help prevent violent crimes, especially those involving children? Let us know in the comments.

A Winnipeg man is being charged with sexual assault, sexual interference, and internet luring after Facebook intercepted communications between him and a 13-year-old girl. According to Winnipeg police, the chat messages were sexual in nature, and were brought to their attention by Facebook near the end of July.

If the phrase “Facebook intercepted communications” caught your attention, I don’t blame you. And I can’t say that it’s not exactly what you’re thinking – Facebook is actively monitoring our chats and messages. Early last month, the company revealed that it’s common practice for their teams to scan chats, searching for criminal activity. It’s mostly algorithms that handle this part, but once something is flagged Facebook employees make the final decision on whether or not it merits calling the authorities.

Facebook algorithms give more weight to communications between users that don’t really have a lot of connections. If two users have a giant age difference or live all the way across the country from each other – the conversation may be flagged. If two users don’t share many friends or have never interacted with each other before on the site – their conversation may be flagged.

So it’s fair to say that the “bad apple” conversations are going to be the ones most frequently caught up in the machine. But the final screening process for reporting malicious activity means that human eyes have to look at the chat transcripts – at least every now and then.

Back to Winnipeg, and to the 25-year-old man who was sending sexual messages to the underage girl. Authorities say that Facebook described the chats to them as “inappropriate” and “explicit.”

Although Facebook notified police of the chats in late July, the suspect wasn’t arrested until early last week.

And according to CNEWS, a sexual assault had already taken place. There’s no word on whether the police received the tip from Facebook before or after the alleged assault.

So, police now have the Facebook data to use in prosecution, but it didn’t actually stop a young girl from being sexually assaulted. It’s unclear if that’s because Facebook caught it late, police failed to act in time, or the assault had already occurred before anyone caught wind of the inappropriate chats. Really, it’s not right to blame anyone here except the pedophile who allegedly performed the violent acts – but it does show that Facebook’s monitoring program isn’t perfect.

However, it also demonstrates that it’s possible for Facebook to do some good with their chat monitoring. It’s also worked before (to perfection), according to Facebook.

When the chat monitoring story first broke, Facebook told Reuters a story of how the program had led to the arrest of a man who was in the process of soliciting a 13-year-old girl on the network. Here’s how Reuters told it:

A man in his early thirties was chatting about sex with a 13-year-old South Florida girl and planned to meet her after middle-school classes the next day. Facebook’s extensive but little-discussed technology for scanning postings and chats for criminal activity automatically flagged the conversation for employees, who read it and quickly called police.

Officers took control of the teenager’s computer and arrested the man the next day, said Special Agent Supervisor Jeffrey Duncan of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The alleged predator has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of soliciting a minor.

“The manner and speed with which they contacted us gave us the ability to respond as soon as possible,” said Duncan, one of a half-dozen law enforcement officials interviewed who praised Facebook for triggering inquiries.

There’s really no denying than it can work. Scanning chats for suspicious activity can help to thwart child predation.

Of course, there are still privacy concerns to consider. Not everyone is convinced that Facebook has the right to monitor “private” communications. Then again, you are using their (free) service to send and receive communications, and at least now it’s with the public knowledge that the company may be monitoring them. Plus, they are not the only ones engaging in this type of monitoring.

Facebook won’t comment on the particulars of the Winnipeg case, but they tell me that they have zero tolerance for this type of activity and are “extremely agressive” in reporting it to the authorities.

Here’s their full statement:

We have zero tolerance for this activity on Facebook and are extremely aggressive in preventing and identifying inappropriate contact as well as reporting it and the people responsible for it to law enforcement. We’re constantly refining and improving our systems and processes. However, we feel we’ve created a much safer environment on Facebook than exists off-line, where people can share this material in the privacy of their own homes without anyone watching.

Have they created a “much safer environment?” In your opinion, is it okay for Facebook to patrol chats in order to help identify possible criminals? Is it a good program conducted in good faith? Is it worth giving up a little bit of your privacy for the greater good?

Or do you think that Facebook should cease this type of monitoring? Let us know in the comments.

The side-by-side view is one of the improvement that’s part of the newest update to Facebook messages. Now, your inbox will appear on the lef-hand side, and you actual message threads on the right. Everything on the same page – awesome.

Facebook has also added multiple photo functionality to messages, as well as emoticons.

Also coming along with this update: better search and navigation. You can now search by user name and keyword as well as utilize new keyboard commands.

We quickly learned that Facebook’s new feature allowed people to see when their conversation partner sees a message, and some users had a collective freakout. When you think about it, it really is a strange feature that could lead to some awkward scenarios between friends and relatives.

Take for instance this possible scenario:

“Hey, as*hole, what didn’t you respond to my message?”
“What message?”
“Don’t even try that dude, I saw that you saw it.”
“No, really, I didn’t.”
“Whatever, I hate you and we are no longer friends now.”

Seriously – it could happen. Or at least something like it could happen (albeit a bit less dramatic).

Facebook has defended the “message seen” feature by saying that “knowing when your friends see your messages means you no longer to have to wonder if a message you’ve sent was received and is a lightweight way to make your messages more conversational.”

But if you don’t buy that and want to get rid of it, there’s a Chrome extension for that. It’s called Facebook Unseen and lets you turn off the “seen at” message with the flip of a switch.

Once installed, here’s what you’ll see at the top of your browser:

As you can see, it’ll keep a tally for you letting you know how many message you haven’t “seen” that you would have “seen” before. Turn off Facebook Unseen if you want everyone to know that you’ve read their messages.

And it’s smiling at you.

Click on it and you’ll see that Facebook has officially added emoticons to its official messaging options. As of now, there are 21 different offerings – 19 faces, a heart, and even the trademark Facebook “like.” Now, you can let your friends know that you approve of their last message in the official Facebook manner.

“You can now easily add smiley faces and other emoticons to a conversation when you’re chatting with your friends. Look for the icon in the bottom right corner of your chat window and emote away,” said Facebook in a tip.

Of course, users have been able to add emoticons, rage faces, and even faces of friends and famous people to Facebook chat with certain codes. But having a handy emoticon menu allows us all to embrace our inner tween.

As of now, the new emoticon menu only appears in Facebook chat (not within messages although the two are linked) and only on your desktop.