Facebook Messenger For Android Gets SMS Support

Facebook has announced that Messenger for Android now allows users to send and receive SMS messages directly within the app, eliminating the need to toggle away from it whenever a new text message comes in. Some users have already seen this feature as part of Facebook's testing — rumor had it in February that we'd see SMS return to Messenger soon, in fact — and for everyone else, it arrives today.

Once upon a time, Facebook allowed users to receive and send SMS messages inside of Messenger. The feature was done away with soon after, though, due to an apparent lack of use. Users have long been requesting its return, but so far have only had Hangouts and similar apps offering it as an option.

That changed today, with Facebook saying that Messenger for Android can now "send and receive" SMS/texts. To enable this, you'll need to open up Messenger and then tap on "Settings," which is the icon that looks vaguely like a person. From there, select the "SMS" option and toggle "Default SMS app" to "on."

You'll be able to tell them apart easily based on color — regular Messenger conversations (your chats, that is) will be displayed as blue, while the SMS/text conversations are in purple. Finally, Messenger supports SMS messages with video, audio, text, and images, as well as emojis, stickers, and location sharing. If you want to use some of the more advanced features, though, like sending someone money or a GIF, you'll have to use a regular Messenger chat.

SOURCE: Facebook Messenger