Facebook Messenger for Android has added, in its latest version of the application, a new function that allows it to manage the sending and receiving of SMS . When you open Messenger, the warning appears asking if you want to use Facebook Messenger as the default SMS app .
If you accept and press OK, the main screen of the application is divided into three parts, one with the list of received and sent SMS messages, combined in the form of conversations.
In the All list, SMS are colored purple while Facebook Messenger messages are colored blue .
The same color difference should be noted when writing a new message: if you select a contact with a blue icon, the sending is done via the Facebook Messenger network, while if the contact icon is purple, the SMS is used.
This distinction is similar to that of Apple's iMessage application which shows SMS in green and iMessages in blue.
The most important difference is that the message via Facebook Messenger is free, but requires active internet, while instead the SMS, the classic old message, is paid according to the rate charged by the operator and can be sent even if there is no Internet.
Another important difference is that the SMS becomes MMS if you add a photo or other attachment to the message.
Attention only that the rates of MMS in Italy are still quite high, about 50 cents each.
In the application settings you can see a new SMS entry, with the option to use the app as default or not to manage SMS and for the automatic recovery of MMS.
To receive MMS from Facebook Messenger you must indicate your phone number in the options.
If you think about it and want to go back to using the previous SMS app, just open that app and Android will ask if you want to use that as default.
This is not an absolute novelty and already a few years ago Facebook Messenger allowed to send SMS (the function was later removed).
But now the functionality is more visible, better implemented and integrated into the chat, with the convenience of being able to use a single app for SMS and Facebook messages (surely sooner or later even Whatsapp will be integrated in the Messenger).
For sure we will not see this function on the iPhone, where you cannot change the app that manages SMS.
The use of SMS from Facebook Messenger can be recommended to those who use Facebook chat often, even if it has much less functions and customizations than other Android Apps to send and receive SMS, among which, the free number one is Google Messenger.
Note that Facebook is pushing its Messenger app more and more, forcing everyone to use it to be able to chat on mobile with Facebook friends (chat on the mobile site no longer works) and adding bots or automatic responders to Messenger that could really become the evolution of modern apps.
