Facebook has begun notifying users that it plans on retiring its “@

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The company this week said it has begun notifying those who use “@

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Facebook said users also will have the option to turn off the forwarding feature if they do not wish to receive any messages.

“We’re making this change because most people haven’t been using their Facebook email address, and we can focus on improving our mobile messaging experience for everyone,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in an email.

Facebook rolled out the “@

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While Facebook has a successful mobile messaging app and is used on the Web to send messages among friends, the email part of the initiative never caught on.

However, Facebook should be fine when it comes to how users message one another. The decision to retire “@

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