How to get Facebook email?

Facebook, as it seams, decided to rival Google and Microsoft as most popular emailing services. They announced own messaging project back in November of 2010. It was a blast around gadget and internet blogs back than. Nevertheless few mentioned that ordinary users can actually get Facebook email address and messenger. Now, I mean it. Read further.

Service is yet in testing mode so you will have to request your account. To do so follow 4 simple steps:

1. (if not done yet) get yourself Facebook nickname so your Facebook profile's URL looked as http://www.facebook.com/username. It's done in Account settings;
2. Go to this page and click button in lower right corner "Request an Invitation";
3. wait till you get announcement that your account is created and available for usage (might take several days up to 2 months till it happens), take a tour offered by announcement;
4. set your account preferences such as SMS announcements.

Digested overview of Facebook email: 

• Address you're getting is generated automatically by your Facebook nick and looks as "username@facebook.com". That's why you need to set this before requesting for FB mail;
• FB email is usable as ordinary mail address, meaning you can send letters to external domains, as well as receive incoming ones from anywhere;
• Facebook doesn't have traditional timeline incoming list. Instead all letters are grouped in conversations and bound to contacts. Quite similar to how current internal IM is made but with integration of email;
• service is already available in several languages and will automatically use your general FB settings;
• SMS announcements aren't free;
• you will get ordinary Facebook announcements on all incoming messages. Smartphone clients are supported;
• attachments are supported for selected file types.

Don't treat FB new service as 100% substitute for other mailing services. It does not support many vital features: such as marking letters as "important" or automated resend and/or auto-respond. I also suggest to not mix your personal and professional lives. If you use Facebook for either of them and not both, only mail related group of contacts. There are about 600 000 Facebook users now and some of them barely check email but troll FB news-feed daily for several hours. Connecting with them might be main reason to give service a try.
Happy mailing. Write me when you get your new Facebook email, please (^.^).