Facebook Messenger: Sending and receiving SMS ended at the beginning of the school year

Since 2016, users have been able to make Messenger their default messaging application. So, you will now be able to send and receive SMS from the Facebook application, more precisely from Meta. If the feature has since become indispensable, its arrival caused some gnashing of teeth at the time, especially Google’s.

For the Mountain View company, this SMS option was against Play Store rules in the sense that the user could unknowingly disable the SMS app in favor of Messenger. Eventually tensions between the two companies eased and the feature remained.

Messaging is over in Messenger

But Meta has some bad news for anyone who uses Messenger as their default messaging app. In fact, the social network confirmed this on their help page: Starting September 28, 2023, messaging will not be available on Messenger.

“If you use Messenger as your default messaging app for messaging on your Android device, please note that after you update the app starting September 28, 2023, you will no longer be able to use Messenger to send and receive texts over your mobile network. , the company writes.

Of course, you will be able to send and receive SMS messages over your mobile network and from your new default messaging app. If you do not choose a default application, your messages will automatically be moved to the default messaging app from your smartphone, such as Android Messages.

Regardless, this is a pretty surprising announcement from Meta. Especially since the company didn’t provide any justification. Therefore, we continue to make some hypotheses. First of all, we should not forget this. Messenger is not compatible with the latest messaging standardsLike RCS, unlike some competitors like Google Messages and Samsung Messages.

We can assume that Messenger is no longer truly competitive in the SMS messaging marketespecially since it has to face another major domestic rival: a certain WhatsApp, which, with its two billion users worldwide, is constantly adding new features.

Source : Meta