Social media is one of the most powerful tools for communication in the world right now. It creates a place for lots of people to come together and talk and see the same things, and makes it feel as if you are a part of a real community, even if the people you are communicating with are nowhere near you. It’s a great way to truly connect with people from all over the world, whether you know them in real life or not. 

One of the first social media platforms in the world was Facebook. Since its launch in 2004, it has been connecting people with their friends and communities in new ways that were unheard of before. As new social media platforms have risen and fallen with the times, Facebook has consistently found new ways to stay relevant and useful to people all over the world. 

One of the ways that Facebook is staying powerful is by providing incredibly powerful features to its users. One of these features is SMS on Facebook, a commonly used way to stay connected with the latest things that are happening in your circles. Here is what SMS on Facebook is, and how you can use it to its fullest potential. 

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What Is SMS On Facebook?

Fundamentally, SMS on Facebook is a way to send SMS text notifications to your phone to notify you of things that are happening on your Facebook page. It is incredibly useful to help you stay notified of everything important that is happening. It allows you to choose what things you want to be notified of, how many notifications you want to have, and when Facebook can text you those notifications. 

It is a very flexible tool, and it allows you to determine almost all of the important factors of when you want to be notified of things that happen on the platform. When setting your preferences for notifications, you are able to determine if you want to receive SMS notifications in a few different circumstances. These can include: 

• When someone makes a comment on your statuses, updates, and posts
• When you get a friend request
• Updates from your friends
• Friend’s birthdays
• Notifications or updates about events
  

There are a wide variety of different things that you can have Facebook notify you of via SMS, which can allow you to be much more connected with your online communities and friends. 

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How To Use SMS On A Mobile Device?

Turning on SMS on Facebook is a very easy thing to do. The process allows you to enable it, and then choose exactly which notifications you want to have on your phone. Here is how to do that. 

First, you need to make sure that Facebook has your phone number. Facebook almost always requires your phone number during sign up or other normal functions, so the odds are good that Facebook already has your phone number. However, if you need to change or update your phone number, follow these steps: 

1. Go to Facebook.com.
2. Go to the upper right corner of your screen, to where a small downward facing arrow is, and click on it. 
3. Click on “Settings and Privacy.”
4. Click on “Settings.”
5. From the menu on the left, scroll down to “Mobile” and click on it. 
6. From here, you can add a new phone number, remove an old phone number, and determine which phone number you want your text messages to be sent to. 
   

Once you have your phone number set up in Facebook, enabling SMS on Facebook is a very easy process. 

1. Navigate to “Settings.”
2. From the menu on the left, scroll down to “Notifications” and click on it. 
3. This will show a menu of all of the different notifications you are able to receive from Facebook. 
   

From this menu, you are able to fully control all of the different types of notifications that you receive, and where you receive them. Aside from SMS notifications, you are able to receive email and push notifications. 

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How To Use SMS On Facebook?

On each different notification type, you are able to toggle whether or not you want to receive those specific notifications, and where you want to receive them. For example, if you want to only receive birthday notifications via SMS, you can toggle on the notifications for SMS in that specific area of the notifications menu, and toggle off email and push notifications. 

Another powerful feature of SMS on Facebook is that you are able to specify how you receive notifications for all the different specific notification types. This is a different, but similar concept to specifying where you want notifications to appear. At the bottom of the notifications page you are able to select what general categories you want to receive notifications from. 

Facebook has two options for the notifications it will send - “Suggested” and “Only About Your Account.” These notification types are very different in the volume of notifications you will receive. 

Suggested notifications are all of the notifications that Facebook thinks you would like to see. These come from all of the different notification selections that are toggled on in the categories above. 

“Only About Your Account” notifications are much rarer, and typically only include critical information about your account, security, and privacy. These are important to have, because they will allow you to have access to critical details about your account’s safety and other critical things. 

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Why Do A Lot Of People Use SMS On Facebook?

SMS on Facebook is something that is very commonly used, and for good reason. First of all, it makes it so that you can receive all of the most important information from Facebook. If a lot of your social life has to do with online communities and communication, having notifications to alert you of things that need your attention is very important. It can alert you of when someone needs your attention, when there is a birthday happening, or even just that someone tagged you in a post. While many of these notifications can come through push notifications on your phone, SMS messages are often easier to process and read than phone notifications. 

Another reason why people use SMS on Facebook is because it allows your account to be much safer. When you have the “Only About Your Account” toggle selected, Facebook will have permission to send you notifications that are highly critical in the event of an emergency with your personal information on Facebook. It’s hopefully not something that needs to be used very commonly, but when there are problems, it allows Facebook to let you know, and deal with the issues accordingly. It’s a great way to protect your privacy and security online, and make sure your Facebook experience is as safe as possible. 

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How Is Community Different?

With Community, there is a large difference between SMS on Facebook and our platform. For Facebook, all SMS messages sent are automated notifications that are simply there to help people stay connected with their online communities. However, with Community, all of the text messages received are sent directly from your community leaders, so that you can have genuine interactions with them. 

Facebook SMS messages are only one way, which means that you can’t actually interact with Facebook through SMS. All of those notifications are sent out through an automated computer, and won’t have actual people behind every message. However, with Community text messages, you can actually send texts back to your community leader, and interact with them in two way communication. Even if Facebook SMS messages are notifying you of messages that were sent to you, you still won’t be able to reach out to them through SMS. Community is a singular place where you can both send and receive messages. 

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Conclusion

SMS on Facebook is a fantastic way to stay connected with your friends and communities on Facebook. It’s a very effective and powerful way to stay updated on the different things that are happening in your circles, and make it so that you can be up to date with everything that is happening around you. It also helps to make your online experience much more safe and helpful, and less likely to cause you trouble. It allows Facebook to send you confirmation codes at your convenience, and much more effectively maintain your privacy and security online. 

Community is based on a very similar concept to Facebook. It is our belief that the foundation of all communication is based on genuine, two way interaction between people. It’s getting harder and harder to find ways to do this organically in a world that’s always moving so quickly, but texting is a form of communication that is always bringing people together, just like Facebook. 

If you want to reach out to your favorite creators and brands, consider looking through our registry of people and brands who use Community to great effect. These are the people who truly want to hear from you, and make genuine connections. If you want to start to truly be a part of new communities and find new ways to expand your own circles, check out Community today! 

Sources

Facebook SMS Notifications Explained | iTG

How to Turn on SMS on Facebook | iTG

How do I use text messages (SMS) for two-factor authentication on Facebook? | Facebook