Question Answered: Does Facebook allow you to send a message to multiple people at once? If not, why?

You can create a group chat to message a group at once, but they will all see each other’s replies. You cannot send a single private message to multiple individual people at the same time. No idea why not.

There are many reasons:-

1. Facebook doesn't want the merge them because nowadays messenger and Facebook are two different services and two of them has different user experiences. Even now on pc browser they have limited the abilities of basic messages functioning, for full experience you need to go on Messenger.
2. You can use messenger as your phone messages inbox and it's not necessary that you need a Facebook account to create messenger account, you can create messenger account without Facebook account.
3. To get rid of confusion. Although they're pretty different services but at some point, they're similar like having group chat and stories function both same on Facebook and messenger. Facebook don't want user to be confused by two things at same. Like when you're chatting in your group messages, suddenly the notification come, somebody has posted 'this' in group. So they even sorted out by making two different notifications.
4. To reduce the app size. To put both Facebook and messenger app features, you need to do combine their codes and algorithms, which makes app pretty big in size and bulky, which for not so high end smartphone users, it's headache.

Although they have made a Facebook lite app for both your demand. It's an application with mostly features for low features smartphone and less data consumption users.

On iOS, apps are allowed to poll servers, but, as you suspected, they can't do it every few seconds. This feature is known as "background app refresh", and it's not the normal way for apps to get notifications.

Instead, iOS relies on the server telling Apple that there's a notification for you. Then, Apple sends the notification to your phone, and iOS displays the notification. Your app doesn't actually need to run at all in order for this to happen - it's all taken care of by the operating system.

I'm not sure about other operating systems such as Android or Windows. I'd imagine they work in a similar way.

No, but a user's email address is something that a third-party application can ask for permission for as shown in the permissions dialog below. Many applications, do, in fact, ask for this permission, and many users click the "Log In" button without fully realizing that they just gave permission for Facebook to pass along their email address to the third-party.

Well, they are supposed to be between you and the recipient only and they are encrypted. But there is nothing out there that cannot be hacked. As far as I know, these messages are private. Comments on FB posts are not private but messenger is supposed to be private. If you really want to have a good, secure way to be more sure in messenger, I recommend that you do secret conversations in messenger. These messages will disappear from both parties within just a few minutes on their own and cannot be gotten back. This is a way to be more secure and you don't have to worry as much that someone else can see them. Just go into your friends account and hit the little i in upper right corner and scroll to “go to secret messages”, and they will disappear from both of you within minutes. But you cannot get them back. Hope this will help. Best Wishes.

Here are my thoughts on Why.

Messaging & Technology
As of now, messaging is the single most used feature of a smart phone worldwide. Facebook earns its value by the amount of time spent and quality of content given by a user. In 2015, active users in top 4 messaging apps crossed the amount of active users of social networks for the first time in history! Facebook is losing its importance in the lives of its consumers and Zuckerberg knows it well. He needs to get people back on Facebook and Messenger is the way forward.

Immense Application possibilities
The possible application of bots is huge and Facebook wants to leverage the creativity and reach of third-party developers. If someone can create bots that lure more people to the platform, Zuck is happy!

Scale
Facebook may have thousands of developers but hey, there are lakhs of freelancers and companies who shall start creating bots for self and others’ businesses. I think they want to take a big slice of the eCommerce pie as well. And, theya re Facebook after all. They know this: What better way to develop content than let users generate it?

Data
They are concerned with data. More developers => more businesses => more users => more transactions => more data.
Why would they say no to data?

Facebook Messenger is a mobile interface into Facebook Messages that further extends it to work with the contacts on your phone.

If you send a message from Messenger to a friend on Facebook who doesn't have the app, they will see it in their Facebook Messages or, if they are online, in chat. They may even get an SMS if they have configured Facebook to notify them in that way.

If you send a message from Messenger to a friends phone number that is not associated with their Facebook account, they will receive a text message and be able to reply. As with the example above, you will be able to see and interact with this conversation in Messenger or on Facebook.

Facebook Messenger allows you to do a couple of extra things:

• Chat Heads - you don't have to be physically on the Facebook app to continue messaging someone. Oh, and you can toss your friends' faces around your phone screen when bored.
• Texting - You can text people via Messenger as well as chat with people on Facebook. This allows you to consolidate your conversations all in one place!
• Messenger is only Chat - You'll only get chat notifications. So, if you want to see posts that people are sharing or you want to post something on Facebook, you'll have to use the actual Facebook app.
• Free Voice Calling - You can call people for free using the Messenger app! It works pretty well too.
• You don't need a Facebook account to use Messenger - Via A New Way to Sign Up for Messenger for Android, you don't actually have to have a Facebook account to use Messenger. But, not surprisingly, you do need to have a Facebook account to use the Facebook app.

I love Messenger though - probably my top used app!

Currently unconfirmed things:
Data Usage and Speed (maybe) - I've heard that Messenger uses less data, but I don't have an actual source that shows that (maybe someone else can confirm?). It would make sense to me, though. I also feel like Messenger is faster but, like I said with the data usage, unconfirmed on my side.

With any messaging responsiveness varies by person but also by importance. As long as you have the time to read a message then you should respond as soon as possible. If you don't have the time to send a message then don't read the message.

On the receiving end of a message don't sweat it if the person takes a while to respond. They might be busy. Once your message is sent forget about it. Don't stress over how long it takes. Remember there was once a time when the only time you could communicate with someone you didn't see regularly was by letter or telegraph. People waited days for a response, you can wait too. This is in reference to waiting like 20-30 minutes maybe even hours though not days. It is Facebook we're talking about. Maybe they aren't online to see the message. If the person is online then to be honest a couple of minutes wait is the most I'd expect. The notification sound should alert them to respond asap.

I rambled, sorry hope my response helps.

For me and for my social group, Facebook Messages has been spectacularly successful. My social group consists of a few early adopters, but many late and "never adopters", who seem to have picked it up very easily without much fuss or complaining that usually accompanies change on Facebook. My social group is international, about 400 people, mostly based in UK, US, India and Western Europe. I'm also a member of a few Groups and frequently discuss things with group members who I am not directly connected to.

Here are a few reasons why Facebook Messages has been successful for me and my social group:

• Messages are instant.
• It keeps a communication history, treating chat and messages alike. This is great for keeping track of what your last conversation with a person or group of people was.
• Messages reach the RIGHT person in time. Always. This is unlike email where people frequently respond with 'can you mail me at my work address, or my Yahoo, or my Gmail, depending on what kind of communication it is'.
• Many times, we like to discuss links in message chains, about some news, or article of interest to a group of people. Facebook link previews really make this very user friendly.
• Facebook Messages record and display when the other person viewed the message, so you get a higher response rate as the recepient knows that the sender can see they've looked at the message. So FB Messages are harder to 'dodge'!
• I just like being able to message from a platform that I log on to most frequently. My most visited site in Chrome is Facebook and Gmail is 3rd in the list.
• Facebook messages dont have spam - isn't that a relief? (yes I now they go to the 'Other' folder by default but it is great to actually have a spam filter that works 100%.
• I like the interface and all the little tweaks they've made to it. Its like a trimmed down Google Wave without the complexity.

Overall, Messages is a great product and one that has reduced the relevance of email for me even more.

Facebook is releasing a redesigned version of Messenger today that attempts to put the focus back on your chats. After years of revenue-focused expansion into bots, games, payments, and other distractions, the company is bringing Messenger back to basics. While all those extra widgets are still present in the app, they’ve mostly been hidden away in spots where you can safely ignore them. The new Messenger still promotes its business objectives throughout the app, but on the whole it’s a welcome return to a time when the app was first and foremost a lightweight utility.

“Messenger is really powerful,” says David Breger, a product manager on the app. “But if you look at something like this, I don’t know if the first word you would use is ‘simple.’” Breger is talking about the old version of the app, which ballooned over the past half-decade into nine different tabs.

It’s worth talking, briefly, about just how complex Messenger had become. There were tabs for games, for people, and for businesses. There were tabs for your friends who currently had the app open, for your groups, and for your past calls. The button for starting a new text message had become a tiny square next to the search bar, while the most prominent real estate was reserved for a button to take photos and videos.