For some time I have sent messages to my daughter on Facebook - she is not a friend as she doesn't want me to know what she's up to, but she has never replied to them. It occurred to me that she might not have received them as she isn't a friend. The link is at the top right hand corner next to Add Friend. It isn't a problem, but it made me think. I texted her the other day asking her if she had received them and she hasn't replied to that either -she isn't very good at keeping in touch, unfortunately, so busy with a business and family, so I don't get upset about it.
Hope this is the right section to put this.
I'm not entirely sure what your question is but.....
...you don't need to be friends with someone on Facebook to message them. I've occasionally sent messages to people who are not FB friends and they have replied the same way.
Sometimes you need to be friends to message people - depends on their settings
I get messages from people I'm not friends with because I choose to have my FB a/c enabled to receive them. I think you get told if you can't message someone - you either dont have the option to do it or you'll get a message saying 'your message cant be sent because this person .....'
The message always gets sent and is in the list of messages to her, so it's not that I have been blocked or anything. Never mind, thanks to you all anyway.
Im not an expert, but mine is set so that I only receive messages from friends. I can get a friend request from anybody but can choose to accept or decline those.