Facebook Messenger for Android gets SMS support: Here’s how it works

Facebook has announced that Messenger for Android will now allow users to send and receive SMS messages within the app itself.

The company made the announcement and stated, “Today we are enabling people to use SMS in Messenger for Android to communicate with their family, friends and phone contacts. What this means is you will now have the choice to be able to send and receive your SMS/texts in Messenger and will not have go to different screens on your phone to communicate.”

To send/receive SMS messages in Messenger, follow the below steps.

1. Open Messenger and tap on Settings (the person icon)

2. Select “SMS” from the list

3. Turn on “Default SMS app"

Users can also switch to a different app as the primary SMS app from your device settings, or directly from the app as and when required. SMS conversations will be in purple and your Messenger conversations will be in blue respectively.

SMS in Messenger will support standard text, images, videos, and audio, and rich content such as stickers, emojis, and location sharing. However, one will not be able to send GIFs, money, and make voice, video calls and request transportation. These features will only be available in the regular Messenger app.