(Time) -- Facebook has started to roll out a new version of its Messenger app for Android that only requires a name and a phone number, not an actual Facebook account, to sign up. Although the new Facebook Messenger app is only available in a handful of countries for now--Australia, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Venezuela--it will eventually roll out to the United States and elsewhere, allowing users to chat with their phone contacts even if they're not using Facebook. This news has set the tech world atwitter with proclamations that the new Messenger is an assault on the lowly text message (including one such proclamation from Facebook itself).
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Facebook is rolling out a new version of its Messenger app for Android
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App only requires a name and a phone number, not an actual Facebook account, to sign up
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Some bloggers see the new Messenger app as an assault on the lowly text message
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But standard SMS has a lot going for it and will likely weather all kinds of challenges
With @placeholder, you must first consider whether the recipient has Facebook installed, and is set up to receive notifications for new messages.