Facebook launches new messaging service, includes email

Facebook launched a next-generation online messaging service on Monday that includes facebook.com email addresses.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg unveiled what he called a "convergent" modern messaging system that "handles messages seamlessly across all the ways you want to communicate."

The messaging service blends online chat, text messages and other real-time conversation tools with traditional email, which Zuckerberg said had lost favor for being too slow for young Internet users.

"It is true that people will be able to have facebook.com email addresses, but this is not email," Zuckerberg said at an event in downtown San Francisco. "It handles email."

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