You Can Now Send A Message To President Obama On Facebook

I just sent a message to President Barack Obama following a White House announcement that it’s teamed up with Facebook to let people virtually communicate with the president.

In fact, as with sending an e-mail or letter to Pennsylvania Ave., sending a Fb message does not assure the message will find yourself in Obama’s arms (or, on his display).

Next time you’re on your phone and someone asks you what you’re doing, you can literally say, “Just writing a quick Facebook message to President Obama – no big deal”.

As with letters, there is virtually no limit to the size of the message you can send the president’s bot. As the first president of the social media age, this was inevitable, but the way he’s taken advantage of it is definitely commendable. When you’re satisfied with your final note, it will send it off to the White House. However, the administration’s staffers do select 10 letters from average citizens for the President to read each night, and the automated message that pops up when you attempt to message The White House says he’ll do the same with messages sent through this bot. Once you hit “send”, your correspondence makes its way to the Office of Presidential Correspondence, responsible for collecting and processing all citizen communication. From his active Twitter account (complete with sweet messages to FLOTUS) to the White House’s presence on Tumblr, he’s brought the presidency into the modern, GIF-adorned era.

“Today”, the statement continues, “there are more ways than ever for us to communicate. One of our jobs at the White House is to keep up”, Goldman added. Abraham Lincoln actually held regular office hours in order to meet with people one-on-one.

“The White House’s Messenger bot, a first of its kind for any government the world over, will make it as easy as messaging your closest friends”, explained Chief Digital Officer Jason Goldman in a White House blog post.