Here's how to solve the Facebook messaging problem

* Don't take the post as an endorsement of "Email Me Instead" or of it being fit for purpose - it seems to work for me but could have untold effects on your system, your privacy and the security of your personal information *  

I love blogging. Helpful people (like you) provide answers to questions I post soooo quickly. Thanks to Andy Lamb for letting me know of the Facebook application Email Me Instead and the excellent write up at AppRate. I've only just installed it and am testing it but on first try it seems to solve the problem I posed in where can I get a Facebook email client for Windows Mobile?

"Email Me Instead" requires a change in the behaviour of your friends as it solves the problem the other way around from what I was asking - it makes sense though. You have to encourage your friends to use the "Email Me Instead" application when sending you messages from Facebook.

The user interface seems to be pretty good - comparable to the default facebook email client - it shows pictures of each contact allowing you to select them, as an alternative you can type a unique part of their name/pick from a list.

PRIVACY WARNING: As Joshua Kaufman points out, your "traditional" email address will be visible to anyone who can browse your facebook profile - which as I've discussed earlier is likely to be pretty much anyone who chooses to do so.

According to the AppRate blog "Email Me Instead is brand new (at present it has less than 1,000 users)" as of the 3rd August 2007. If it works as well as it appears to (early days) then I expect it will spread very quickly. Let's hope it doesn't include any malware!