US President Obama now contactable via Facebook Messenger

THE White House has opened up a new Facebook Messenger channel to allow people to actively relay notes to US President Barack Obama via a more informal platform, for the first time ever.

The service is an extension of the President's long-standing practice of reading 10 letters from constituents every day, which have traditionally been transferred through regular postal channels -- until now.

The change will see White House staff now include letters sent through Messenger as part of its "goal is to bring the conversation to even more Americans", according to the official announcement uploaded via www.whitehouse.gov.

The move follows the launch of President Obama's own Twitter account and the First Lady's Snapchat account and goes hand-in-hand with "creating opportunities for people to engage with their government in new and accessible ways, using the same technologies we already rely on in our daily lives".