What is a message request and why might it matter?¶

A message request is attempted platform contact routed outside the recipient's established inbox relationship. It may evidence an approach even when the recipient never accepted, opened or noticed it.

Routing affects what the recipient experiences¶

Platforms can place unfamiliar senders in request, filtered or spam folders. Depending on settings and service behaviour, the recipient may see a notification, limited preview or no obvious alert. Accepting or opening the request may move it into the main inbox and create additional connection or seen records.

This distinction can matter when analysing unsolicited contact, impersonation or relationship history. Submission, platform receipt, notification, acceptance, opening and reply are separate events.

Preserve the pre-interaction state¶

Record the folder and request status, stable sender and recipient IDs, conversation and message identifiers, timestamps, preview, notifications and any acceptance or rejection event. Avoid opening or accepting a live request merely to inspect it before its current state is captured.

The absence of a response does not establish that the recipient saw the request. A displayed seen label must also be interpreted according to the platform. Report the strongest supported stage rather than describing every request as a delivered and read inbox message.