LinkedIn is upgrading its messaging experience with a new ‘Focused Inbox,’ which aims to cut down on spam and surface more relevant messages. The next time you login to LinkedIn and open your inbox, you’ll see a notification inviting you to “Try Focused Inbox.” Clicking on the button shown above will automatically filter your messages into two tabs: ‘Focused,’ which uses AI to identify important messages; and ‘Other,’ which filters the remainder of your messages. Considering there’s an AI element involved it may take time for LinkedIn to learn your inbox preferences. You’ll have the option to move messages between tabs, or revert back to the traditional messaging experience if you don’t enjoy the Focused Inbox. LinkedIn is making this change in uptick in direct messaging, which the company says is up 20% compared to last year. In an email, a LinkedIn representative states: “This feature is the latest in a series of improvements we’ve made to help members have more productive conversations and connect to opportunities through LinkedIn messaging. With conversations up nearly 20 percent since last year, we’re seeing more professionals on LinkedIn are turning to messaging to connect and engage with each other.”
LinkedIn has announced that its Focused Inbox feature is now available to all users worldwide.
The Focused Inbox feature is designed to help users better manage their inboxes by sorting messages into two tabs – “Focused” and “Other.” The Focused tab contains messages from contacts that LinkedIn considers to be the most important to the user, while the Other tab contains all other messages.
Users can toggle between the two tabs as needed, and can also choose to have all new messages default to the Focused tab. LinkedIn says that the Focused Inbox is powered by machine learning, and that it will continue to improve over time.
The rollout of the Focused Inbox follows a limited beta test that was conducted earlier this year. LinkedIn says that the feature received positive feedback from users during the beta test, and that it is now available to all users as of today.