Comparison

Messenger vs Messages

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Messenger

Connect with friends and family through text, audio, and video calls. Share photos, videos, and large files, and express yourself with custom themes and animated content. Features an AI assistant for help and support.

Highlights
  • Text, audio, and video calls
  • High-definition photo sharing
  • Shared photo albums
  • QR code connections
  • Large file sharing (up to 100MB)
  • Edit and unsend messages
  • Disappearing messages
  • AI assistant
Features
Read full description

Messenger is a free messaging app that helps you connect with anyone, anywhere. Stay in touch with your friends and family, explore your interests with people like you, build your community, and share your vibe beyond words, all in one app. CHAT AND CALL ANYONE, ANYWHERE
 Find and connect with your friends and family on Facebook and Messenger, no phone number needed. GET INSTANT ANSWERS FROM YOUR AI ASSISTANT* Meta AI is your assistant that can answer any questions, give you advice, help with homework, and more. SEND YOUR PHOTOS IN HIGH DEFINITION Send and receive clearer, crisper picture of your favorite moments with Messenger. CREATE SHARED ALBUMS From a recent summer vacation to your grandma’s 80th birthday, create albums of photos and videos to share, organize and reminisce over important moments in your group chats. EASILY ADD NEW CONNECTIONS WITH QR CODES Connect with people you meet in real life by scanning their Messenger QR code or sharing yours via a link. SHARE LARGE FILES DIRECTLY IN CHAT Whether it’s a Word, PDF, or Excel doc, you can send large files up to 100MB right inside of Messenger. EDIT AND UNSEND MESSAGES Hit send too soon? You can edit the message up to 15 minutes after sending DISAPPEARING MESSAGES Some things aren’t meant to last forever. Choose how long your end-to-end encrypted chats stick around after they’ve been read. COME TOGETHER WITH YOUR COMMUNITIES Meaningfully connect with people like you from your school, neighborhood, and interest groups. GET IN YOUR FAVORITE CREATORS’ INNER CIRCLE Stay in the know with creators by joining their broadcast channels for authentic and casual content. UNLEASH YOUR IMAGINATION W/ META AI* Tap into your go-to creative partner to create, edit, animate images and more. CAPTURE EVERYDAY MOMENTS ON STORIES Highlight moments of your day using photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours in Stories. DROP A NOTE WITH YOUR THOUGHTS Stay connected with your friends by sharing quick updates that disappear after 24 hours. BRING YOUR VIBE TO YOUR CHATS Sometimes words just don’t cut it. Tap into more ways to express yourself with animated stickers, GIFs, reactions and more. SET THE MOOD OF YOUR CHAT WITH THEMES Customize your chat with a large and constantly evolving list of themes featuring popular artists, holidays, and more. *Meta AI is available in select languages and countries only, with more coming soon.

About

Messages

Communicate with contacts through unlimited texts, photos, videos, and documents. Supports iMessage for Apple devices and RCS, SMS, and MMS for others. Features include message editing, unsending, and scheduling.

Highlights
  • Send unlimited texts, photos, videos, and documents
  • iMessage, RCS, SMS, and MMS support
  • Edit and unsend messages
  • Schedule messages
  • Message effects and stickers
  • Group chat features
  • Messages in iCloud
Features
Read full description

Stay connected to the people and conversations that matter most. Send unlimited texts, photos, videos, documents, and more to any iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, or visionOS device with iMessage, or use it to send RCS, SMS, and MMS messages. Features • Send texts, photos, videos, audio messages, documents, stickers, Memoji, polls, and more to contacts using their phone number or Apple Account. • Send Messages via satellite* to stay connected with friends and family even when you are without cellular or Wi-Fi connection. • Automatically translate incoming texts, including group messages.* • On-device spam detection filters out spam from your conversations list. • Opt-in to screen messages from unknown numbers. • Tapback with any emoji or sticker for a quick reply to express what you think about a message. • Add effects to your messages like animated text effects, full-screen effects, and bubble effects to bring your conversations to life. • Schedule a message to send at a specified time with Send Later. • Your name and photo, or even Memoji, can be shared with your friends. • Edit any message for up to 15 minutes after sending it. Recipients will be able to see a record of edits made to the message. • Unsend any message for up to 2 minutes after sending it. • Mark as unread when you don’t have time to respond but want to be sure to reply to the sender later. • Name a group and add a photo to personalize the group conversation. • Mentions let you direct a message to an individual in a group conversation. • Inline replies let you reply to a specific message and see all related messages in their own view. • Pin conversations to keep up to nine of your favorite message threads at the top of the list. • iMessage apps let you quickly share photos, recently played music, stickers, GIFs, Apple Cash*, and more right from Messages. • Start a Check In with a family member or friend to let them know when you’ve arrived at a destination or set up a Check In for a time duration. • Use Messages in iCloud to keep your entire message history updated and available on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro, even when you set up a brand-new device. • SharePlay via Messages lets you share synchronized activities like movies, music, workouts, games and more while chatting with friends in Messages. • Shared with You shows content sent to you by friends in Messages conversations in a section in Photos, Safari, News*, Music*, Podcasts, or the TV app* • Collaboration lets you invite others to collaborate on a file via Messages and shares activity updates in the thread when someone makes an edit to a shared project. Apple Watch Features • Quickly read and respond to incoming messages. • Use smart replies, dictation, audio messages, stickers, #images*, Memoji, polls, or the QWERTY keyboard (Apple Watch Series 7 or later models). • Automatically translate incoming texts, including group messages.* • Start a Check In with a family member or friend to let them know when you’ve arrived at a destination or set up a Check In for a time duration. • Pin conversations to keep your favorite message threads at the top of the list. • Save photos, audio messages and videos from your messages. • Ask Siri to send a message to your contacts. • Respond to a specific message inline to keep conversations organized. • Send, receive, and request money with Apple Pay*. • Mute or delete conversations. * Not available in all regions.

Screenshots

Messenger4 screens
Messages4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Messenger at 4.7 against Messages's 4.1. Messenger also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 9 months) and ratings volume (14M vs 38K). Messages's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and ads (none vs shown). On price there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Messenger sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Messages asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Messenger holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Messenger has 14M ratings behind it against 38K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 66% of Messenger's written reviews are positive against 46% of Messages's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Messenger ships an update weekly, Messages every 9 months. Both last shipped on October 18, 2026.

Scorecard10 real differences · 1 level
Messenger versus Messages: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMessengerMessages
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (14M ratings) — better4.1 (38K ratings)
Positive reviews66.0% of reviews — better45.5% of reviews
Number of ratings14M — better38K
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 9 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#7 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS15.110.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size281 MB9 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperMeta Platforms, Inc.Apple Inc.

Customer experience

Messenger

All ratings13,808,442 ratings
Positive91.6%
Neutral3.1%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews13,086 reviews
Positive66.0%
Neutral5.6%
Negative28.5%

Messages

All ratings38,415 ratings
Positive75.4%
Neutral6.1%
Negative18.5%
Written reviews4,922 reviews
Positive45.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative42.0%

User reviews

Messenger

From 14M App Store ratings

What we love

  • 📱 Useful for staying connected with friends and family
  • 🗣️ Enables easy communication through text, voice, and video
  • 💬 Convenient group chat features
  • 🌐 Works across multiple devices and platforms

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
  • 🔒 Privacy and security concerns
  • 🔄 Unnecessary updates that remove useful features
  • 📤 Issues with message delivery and notifications
  • 🗂️ Cluttered interface and poor organization of chats

Messages

From 38K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and reliable messaging
  • 🔒 End-to-end encryption
  • 👍 Seamless integration with Apple devices
  • 💡 Fun features like Memoji and stickers
  • 🤝 Easy group chat management

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • 🔍 Limited search functionality
  • 📤 Inability to delete messages for others
  • 🔔 Lack of typing indicators in group chats
  • 📱 Incompatibility with non-Apple devices

Bugs and requests

Messenger

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Unable to log in or access account
  • Messages failing to send or receive
  • Unexpected app crashes and freezes
  • Syncing issues between devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add option to delete or unsend messages
  • Improve search functionality for chat history
  • Introduce customizable notification settings
  • Bring back old features like emoji reactions and location sharing

Messages

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Messages not delivering consistently
  • App crashing or freezing on launch
  • Issues with iCloud sync and message history
  • Problems with location sharing and privacy

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to schedule messages
  • Option to lock specific conversations
  • More customization options for Memoji
  • Improved voice message functionality
  • Expanded reaction/emoji options

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Messenger

One-time10
  • Avatar Item$0.99
  • Avatar Item$1.99
  • Avatar Item$2.99
Show 7 more
  • Avatar Item$3.99
  • Avatar Item$4.99
  • Avatar Item$6.99
  • Avatar Item$7.99
  • Avatar Item$8.99
  • Avatar Item$9.99
  • Avatar Item$10.99
None

Messages

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Messenger free?
Messenger is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Messages free?
Messages is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Messenger or Messages?
Messenger is rated higher. Messenger averages 4.7 out of 5 from 14M ratings, while Messages averages 4.1 from 38K ratings.
Do Messenger or Messages have ads?
Messenger shows ads; Messages does not.
Which is updated more often, Messenger or Messages?
Messenger ships an update weekly, and Messages every 9 months. Most recently, Messenger was updated on October 18, 2026 and Messages on October 18, 2026.

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