Facebook Messenger now lets Android users send SMS

In addition to playing a soccer mini-game in-app, Facebook Messenger now lets its users send text messages without needing to switch to a different app.

“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,” the company posted on their page.

To activate this feature, follow these three steps:

1. Open Messenger and tap on Settings (the person icon)
2. Select “SMS” from the list
3. Turn on “Default SMS app”

After which, you’ll see a variation in the color of SMS conversations — blue is from Messenger while purple bubbles are text messages. Standard rates apply. Users can send text, images, videos, audio, and even stickers and emojis can be sent via SMS.

As of now, this feature is available to Android users and is only optional. You can always opt to have your separate Messaging app.

We tried doing it on our Android devices but we still don’t see the SMS option. We’re thinking that the update is per region just like normal software upgrades. Try it on your device and let us know if you see this feature.

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