Snapchat Recording and Monitoring SMS's in Latest Update on Android??

I believe this is the same permission Facebook and others require and have stated they use it to allow convenient confirmation of your mobile number. They can automatically receive and delete the incoming SMS confirmation message sent from their server to your device. This is a fault of Android's permission system which, while a huge step forward when iOS had nothing, is now very outdated and leads to less security and app function awareness.

For an application that isn't supposed to retain anything past the expiry of a picture, why are they asking to monitor and record my text messages!?!?!

This is yet another reason Android needs an "a la carte" permission system that encourages developers to use minimal permissions, and enables users to shut off intrusive permissions.

Apple has more latitude to impose policies because their app store is curated. Google needs to provide customers with the tools to achieve the same level of protection from apps that load up on permissions for no other reason than to feed dubious behavioral targeting mechanisms. This has been an issue for years, and an improvement in this situation is way overdue.