Prepare for a change if you’re a Facebook Messenger user who has set the app as your default texting option on your mobile phone. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has announced that the feature syncing Messenger with SMS texts will be discontinued after September 28, 2023.
This isn’t the first time Messenger has withdrawn support for SMS texts. The feature was initially launched in 2012, dropped in 2013, and relaunched in 2016 as “SMS on steroids,” according to Facebook.
SMS, short for “Short Messaging Service,” is an industry standard for text-based communications between pagers, cell phones, and other wireless devices. Established in 1986, SMS has become the foundation for many mobile messaging platforms.
Messenger users who have the app set as their default for texting should prepare for this fall
Meta — the parent company for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — announced via a notice posted to their Help Center that the feature syncing Messenger with SMS texts will be discontinued following all updates after September 28, 2023
Industry experts and dedicated Messenger users speculate that SMS compatibility may return or be integrated into Meta’s more popular mobile messaging app, WhatsApp. In the meantime, Messenger users will need to adapt.
According to a notice posted on Messenger’s Help Center, users will still be able to send and receive SMS messages through their cellular network and access SMS message history through their phone’s new default messaging app. If no new default messaging app is chosen, the SMS messages will automatically go to the phone’s default messaging app.
SMS text messaging has long served as the main communication method, especially in the United States, for users with different phone providers, operating systems, or mobile technologies. While Android users lack the rich texting experience of Apple’s iMessage, SMS remains universally accessible.
Many banks and institutions rely on SMS text messages for two-factor authentication to secure remote access for their customers. It seems this practice will continue for the foreseeable future.
Writers at TechRadar and in Reddit’s r/Android community have speculated that Meta may be looking to relaunch this SMS feature ‘along with some upgrades’ or to redeploy Messenger staff and resources to their other major messaging app, WhatsApp, instead
In 2016, Facebook aimed to make Messenger a competitor to Apple’s iMessage and Google Android Messages across multiple devices. Messenger’s SMS integration displayed SMS text messages in purple and Messenger conversations in blue, similar to Apple’s blue iMessage and green text display.
TechRadar and Reddit’s r/Android community have suggested that Meta may reintroduce the SMS feature with upgrades or reallocate resources to WhatsApp.
However, the discontinuation of Messenger’s SMS compatibility may be a result of company-wide cutbacks. Meta, under the leadership of Mark Zuckerberg, has been focused on cost-cutting measures, including layoffs. As Zuckerberg explained, the aim is to increase efficiency and prioritize top projects.
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