What Are Facebook SMS Notifications? How to Get Started

Short message service (SMS) is the second most popular communication channel (succeeded only by email). That explains why some social media users might want to receive their notifications via text rather than in-app or push notifications.

To accommodate this preference, Facebook allows users to activate SMS notifications. This allows users to receive and respond to notifications regarding private messages, status updates, comments, tags, or profile changes.

Below, we'll answer the following and other frequently asked questions:

• What are Facebook SMS notifications?
• Why use Facebook SMS notifications?
• How to activate (and stop) SMS notifications?

What are Facebook SMS notifications?

Facebook SMS notifications are text messages sent to users to notify them about direct messages, comments, tags, status updates, or profile changes. Users can choose to receive browser or email notifications, too.

Once you activate SMS notifications on Facebook, you can choose whether to receive notifications "Only about your account" or "Suggested." Here are the differences:

• Only about your account notifications: Facebook will send you text messages about your Facebook account changes, privacy, login attempts, and password changes. This is the minimal notification option.
• Suggested notifications: Facebook will send text messages it thinks will interest you. These include the above changes to your Facebook account as well as comments on your posts and tags. This option allows you to manually choose which types of SMS messages you receive. Expect to receive more text messages using this option.

Why use Facebook SMS notifications?

Today's technology users receive a lot of notifications and communications from businesses. They constantly receive emails, text messages, in-app notifications, push notifications, phone calls, and voicemails:

• The current statistics indicate 56% of consumers receive anywhere between 25 to over 100 emails every day.
• The average adult cell phone owner makes and receives about 5 calls every day.
• The average U.S. smartphone owner gets around 46 push notifications every day.

It's a bit overwhelming. With so many messages coming through, users need options to take control, and they usually do this by filtering which channels’ messages come through.

Some users may create an alternate email account for their "junk" mail, and others may only use their phone number for personal calls and texts. It's all about user preference.

SMS notifications let you decide how you receive your messages. Tired of missing status updates and comments on social media because of your other 50+ notifications? A text message can better stand out from the crowd and ensure you see it, especially if it's something critical like an account breach or an important family update.

How to activate SMS notifications

Below, we'll walk you step-by-step through getting started with Facebook SMS notifications. This includes activation, configuration, and cancellation.

Activate Facebook SMS notifications

1. Navigate to your Facebook profile's Account Settings.
2. Go to the Mobile tab and select Add a Phone.
3. Enter your phone number, then Facebook will send you a confirmation text to verify your number and ensure you want to opt in.

Configure Facebook SMS settings

1. Confirm your number, then you can begin adjusting your preferred settings.
2. Choose the daily text limit and time of day you want to receive Facebook SMS notifications from the Mobile tab.
3. Navigate to the Notifications tab to specify which kind of notifications you wish to receive via SMS. You can choose multiple messaging channels for different notifications. For example, you can choose to receive an email, SMS, and push notification when someone leaves a comment but only receive a push notification if someone tags you in a picture.

Stop Facebook SMS notifications

Don't want to receive Facebook SMS notifications anymore? You can deactivate your mobile phone from the Mobile tab in your settings or text "STOP" to Facebook's short code: 32665 (FBOOK).

Facebook SMS commands you need to know

Here are a few helpful SMS commands you can text to 32665 for different actions:

• Receive a one-time password: OTP
• Start receiving text notifications: START
• Stop receiving text notifications: STOP
• Get assistance: HELP

Frequently asked questions about Facebook SMS notifications

Want to know more? Here are answers to a few frequently asked questions.

1. Are Facebook SMS messages free?

Facebook won't charge you for Facebook text notifications, but your phone provider likely still will. Your standard rates for sending and receiving SMS messages still apply.

2. How do I turn on Facebook SMS notifications?

You can either text "START" to 32665 or activate your phone from your Account Settings on your Facebook profile. Follow the detailed instructions above for more information.

3. What do push and SMS mean on Facebook notifications?

SMS messages are 160-character messages sent through your cell phone provider, while push notifications are brief messages sent from an application you’ve downloaded on your device.

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