DHAKA: Facebook has quietly closed its three-year-old email service that gave users "@facebook.com" email addresses.

From now on, emails sent to an "@facebook.com" address will be forwarded to the personal email address from which the member signed up for the site.

"We`re making this change because most people haven`t been using their Facebook email address," said a Facebook spokesperson.

The change will happen in early March, reported BBC.

The service was launched in November 2010 and billed as a way to streamline users` communication by providing a single inbox that could receive Facebook messages, SMS texts, and conventional emails.

It came under fire in 2012 when Facebook replaced users` published email addresses with their "@facebook.com" email on their profile.

The company later reversed course.

The move comes just a few days after Facebook`s surprise purchase of messaging app WhatsApp for $19bn (£11.4bn).

BDST: 1307 HRS, FEB 26, 2014