If you own a smartphone, you probably send a bunch of text messages. Facebook already knows this — the company just wants to know what your go-to apps are for doing it.
Facebook Would Like to Know How You Text
What are your favorite apps for messaging? Facebook would like to know for ... research purposes.
Don’t be too surprised if, like my colleague Peter Kafka, you see the following survey pop up in your News Feed asking you what types of messaging apps you use on your phone.
At least part of it is about trying to figure out how to get you to use Messenger, Facebook’s stand-alone messaging app, as your primary mode of texting:
And other parts just seem to survey the competition on the playing field. That includes the apps you already know:
As well as the apps you love and the apps you hate:
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Facebook cares a lot about messaging — so much so that it snapped up WhatsApp to the tune of $19 billion.
And Facebook Messenger, the company’s most successful, home-brewed app outside of the main Facebook app, is growing like a weed. Facebook hopes that growth will continue, especially when it starts forcing you to download the app to send any mobile messages on Facebook at all.
So what’s the best way to sustain that growth? Figuring out what your favorite apps are from Facebook’s competition — and paying close attention to the best features those others have to offer.
A Facebook spokesperson didn’t have an immediate comment on the survey.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
