While Microsoft has disabled Windows 10’s Messaging app’s SMS capabilities, as well as added a new Skype Relay app,it still hadn’t answered questions about the future of the Windows 10 Messaging app given its continued presence in Windows 10.
At first, the Messaging app’s existence was there to facilitate messaging via Skype Messaging and when that was removed, traditional messaging by SMS. With neither Skype nor Messaging Everywhere now using the Messaging app, some might question the seemingly vestigial presence of the Windows 10 Messaging app on PCs. It turns out, Microsoft still has a use for the client app.
In a message in the app, Microsoft says:
This app only shows SMS texts from your mobile operator about your data plan (billing, data limits etc,) and only on devices built for high-speed wireless data (LTE)
It can also show messages that you’ve sent and recieved from apps such as Skype via SMS relay. It can’t send texts.
What this means is that while the app will remain on all devices, it will remain useful for two camps of people. People who have LTE enabled Windows 10 PCs, tablets or hybrids (Surface 3) and people who have Windows phones (as well as Android phones in the future).
Users who don’t want to use the messaging app however can still use Cortana to send texts to other mobile phones and view their texts in the messaging app – at least for now.
Developer: Microsoft Corporation
