As you surely know, the app Facebook Messenger can be set to receive and send text messages on smartphones. An alternative to the default system of Android and iOS devices which, however, will soon cease to exist.
Meta has in fact announced that from September 2023 the Messenger app will no longer be able to manage incoming and outgoing SMS. But then again is there still someone who uses SMS?
Well actually yes. Short Message Services, from which the acronym derives, are mostly used today for security purposes. Think about the2-factor authentication (2FA) or garlic OTP of banking services. As for messaging between private individuals, well then we can say that SMS have now been supplanted by apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.
Facebook Messenger says goodbye to SMS
The ability to set up Messenger as a center for SMS management first arrived in 2012. However, the feature was immediately abandoned in 2013 and Facebook (now Meta) worked on it for a good 3 years before relaunch it definitively in 2016. It must be said that, however interesting, this feature has never won the hearts of users, also considering the progressive aging of SMS technology in favor of more functional online instant messaging apps.
Anyway the feature has been active until today, with users who could decide whether to set Messenger as the defined app for receiving and sending SMS. Now Meta has it instead recommended everyone to remove the app as defaultas the next update on September 28 will remove this feature. To change the default messaging app on Android, just go to Settings > Apps > Choose default apps > SMS apps and select another application. You will certainly find the system one provided by default by your smartphone.
SMS functionality will be discontinued on September 28, 2023, with the arrival of the Facebook Messenger update.