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Facebook criticized for heavy-handed Messenger SMS push
July 21, 2025
Facebookreallywants you to use itsMessengerapp for SMS. So much so that it’s using a questionable tactic to maximize the number of users who set Messenger as the default app for handling SMS.
SMS integrationarrived to Facebook Messengerlast week. After the update, users who open the app are greeted with a pop-up screen prompting them to set Messenger as the default SMS app.
So far, nothing special, but as tech journalist Amir Efrati ofThe Informationnoted, Facebook is being a little disingenuous in the way it presents options to users.
Specifically, there’s no “No, thanks” button. The user is shown a prominent “OK” button, but if they don’t want to bring their SMS chats into Messenger they have to tap on the much less visible link to “Settings” (or tap the back key).
In Settings, there’sanotherhighly-visible prompt to turn on SMS integration. If you don’t want the app to handle SMS, you have to click on the back key.
Presented with this interface, most users will tap “OK” without even reading what they signed up for. Granted, it only takes an extra second to figure out what’s happening, but that doesn’t make Facebook’s strategy – a textbook case of “dark pattern” – less deceptive.
Amir Efrati argued that the tactic may even be in violation ofGoogle’s Play Store policies, which specifically prohibit “deceptive device settings changes.” While it’s up to Google to decide whether Facebook is breaking rules of not, Messenger’s SMS push could potentially be classified as an app that “misleads users into removing or disabling third-party apps or modifying device settings or features.”
Facebook offered a statement on the issue toEngadget, but it’s pretty much a non-answer:
Some users are now reporting seeing a “No” button – that’s either an A/B test or a quick reaction to the criticism. However, we didn’t spot it on any of our devices.
You may think that this is no big deal. But think about Facebook Messenger’s scale:over 900 million users and growing. Even if a small percent of users are tricked into changing their default SMS apps against their wishes, that’s tens of millions of new users for Messenger – and potentially millions of lost users for indietexting apps like Textra, Evolve SMS or QKSMS.
This isn’t the first time Facebook is criticized for using heavy-handed tactics to steer users towards its services. In fact, grabbing a slice of the SMS pie is one potential reason why Facebook isso keen to make users install Messenger, rather than use the messaging feature of its main app.
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