We have some bad news for those of you who have been using Facebook Messenger as your SMS app of choice. Meta is getting ready to ditch SMS support in Facebook Messenger, which will happen next month.
Facebook Messenger will ditch SMS support next month
Meta wrote that users: “will no longer be able to use Messenger to send and receive SMS messages sent by your cellular network when you update your app after September 28, 2023”.
This feature has been supported since 2016, so it has been around for around 7 years at this point. Actually, it was first introduced in 2012, then removed in 2013, and then brought back in 2016.
The company is redirecting users to their phone’s default SMS app. You can change easily change your default SMS app, by the way. All you have to do is go to Settings -> Apps -> Default apps -> SMS app, and choose your app of choice.
Do note that different phones may have slightly different routes to that menu. It’s always in the ‘Apps’ subsection of Settings, though, so you’ll find it there. Google Messages is a popular solution, so if you don’t have it installed on your phone, you can always download it. You will get RCS support along with it, by the way.
There are plenty of SMS app choices out there
If you’d prefer to use a different SMS client, that’s not a problem. There are plenty of choices out there. Here’s our list of some of the best SMS apps available on Android.
We’re not sure why Meta decided to make this move, as quite a few users, presumably, use Messenger as their SMS app of choice. Considering that it doesn’t support RCS, and that chatting via the Internet is Messenger’s main goal, by far, this is kind of understandable. Considering the app’s past, however, who knows, perhaps Meta will decide to revive SMS support at some point.
2023-08-08 15:06:57