Best Text / SMS App for Android?

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Is Handcent that sketchy Chinese one? I got weirded out by bad english in the app a spammy feel. Didn't quite feel like sending all my sms info through
them..

edit; or maybe it was GoSMS? I tried them both and was not comfortable with either one. Felt kinda janky too

GoSMS is the sketchy Chinese one.... too much spam.

 

[soccerballtux]

GoSMS is the sketchy Chinese one.... too much spam.

+5

 

[Sheep]

It looks better than those screenshots. Those must have been made with some type of custom skin applied.

I have to be missing something. I just tried out Handcent and it still looks like the butt ugly lovechild of Android 2.1 and iOS. I checked out some of the skins on the market and they all look like janky garbage too.

Sliding Messaging can't mature soon enough.

 

[ControlD]

I have to be missing something. I just tried out Handcent and it still looks like the butt ugly lovechild of Android 2.1 and iOS. I checked out some of the skins on the market and they all look like janky garbage too.

Sliding Messaging can't mature soon enough.

I didn't think it was that bad (the skins are wretched though), but I do like the looks of Textra much better. Textra just isn't functional enough for me. ChompSMS seems to be the best compromise between looking decent and being fully functional. Then again, I have only been on Android for a month or so, so perhaps I am used to ugly iOS apps lol.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

GoSMS is the sketchy Chinese one.... too much spam.

Its spammy but I still havent had one thats better.

I will try textra now that everyone is talking about it though.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Its spammy but I still havent had one thats better.

I will try textra now that everyone is talking about it though.

Agreed. I've been on the lookout. I've tried Sliding Messenger, Fusion, etc, none are really better. Textra's popup still looks like Android 2.x-esque.

I'm ok with the CM stock SMS popup. It looks decent. Maybe that in combination with Fusion or GoSMS would be good.

I have to be missing something. I just tried out Handcent and it still looks like the butt ugly lovechild of Android 2.1 and iOS. I checked out some of the skins on the market and they all look like janky garbage too.

Sliding Messaging can't mature soon enough.

Seriously right? Handcent might have been good when Android was maturing in 2009, 2011, but then it became all bloated and slow on my Moto Droid. Not sure if it got any better, but probably so with newer and faster handsets. It's sad they haven't innovated much since 2009, but they did get one thing right which was Group MMS. There's very few 3rd party solutions that really work well with MMS and Group MMS

 

[chitwood]

I actually downloaded Chomp because of this thread

Good app, I approve. Was looking to replace the stock app for a while.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Im back in the search now. I was using Textra and its pretty good but the group sms was coming in out of order. I would be completely lost in certain convos until a few hours later a barrage of texts roll in.

How is chomp?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Im back in the search now. I was using Textra and its pretty good but the group sms was coming in out of order. I would be completely lost in certain convos until a few hours later a barrage of texts roll in.

How is chomp?

Chomp and Textra are made by the same devs. Textra is supposed to be the Android 4.0+ version of Chomp. Chomp still has legacy support for Android 2.x or maybe even 1.x.

Anyway, I'd suggest you try Fusion Messenger or Sliding Messenger.

 

[QueBert]

Sliding Messenger would be great if it had MMS & private folders. GoSMS does the most, but I just don't like it. The Stock MIUI messaging app's pretty nice, but it doesn't support custom notifications for each contact, which is a deal breaker for me. Perhaps Light Flow does work with MIUI but I haven't been able to get custom contact notification sounds to work.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Sliding Messenger would be great if it had MMS & private folders. GoSMS does the most, but I just don't like it. The Stock MIUI messaging app's pretty nice, but it doesn't support custom notifications for each contact, which is a deal breaker for me. Perhaps Light Flow does work with MIUI but I haven't been able to get custom contact notification sounds to work.

Sigh. There are times like these where I wish I had an iPhone.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Sigh. There are times like these where I wish I had an iPhone.

Eh, but the iPhone messenger is just simple. It's kinda like the Google stock messenger except group messages work a little better.

I just noticed that most Android SMS apps get all bloaty. I wonder if GoSMS could be made better if they just stopped supporting Android 2.x

Sliding Messenger would be great if it had MMS & private folders. GoSMS does the most, but I just don't like it. The Stock MIUI messaging app's pretty nice, but it doesn't support custom notifications for each contact, which is a deal breaker for me. Perhaps Light Flow does work with MIUI but I haven't been able to get custom contact notification sounds to work.

Sliding's kinda meh too. The dev was a jerk telling people to just delete their messages instead of working to fix the lag. It's been months and it seems the lag's finally better? I dunno. There really isnt' a GoSMS alternative right now thats as powerful. Fusion's a great app except I see the dev is more focused on Google Voice + SMS in 1 app rather than creating an ultimate SMS app.

 

[QueBert]

Eh, but the iPhone messenger is just simple. It's kinda like the Google stock messenger except group messages work a little better.

I just noticed that most Android SMS apps get all bloaty. I wonder if GoSMS could be made better if they just stopped supporting Android 2.x



Sliding's kinda meh too. The dev was a jerk telling people to just delete their messages instead of working to fix the lag. It's been months and it seems the lag's finally better? I dunno. There really isnt' a GoSMS alternative right now thats as powerful. Fusion's a great app except I see the dev is more focused on Google Voice + SMS in 1 app rather than creating an ultimate SMS app.

The Sliding dude is an asshat, GoSMS has some stupid things, like I can't scroll back more than a page without the "show more messages" I have a few contacts with 5k of messages ans it makes going back a pita. After years with Android I've finally accepted there will never be a texting app I really like. So I just stick with GO and deal with all of it's short comings.

 

[vshah]

i'm back to stock htc app. was having a lot of problems with textra not sending messages and a huge delay in sending/receiving mms. not to mention it used it's own database so sms backup apps didn't work.

 

[soccerballtux]

Is Handcent that sketchy Chinese one? I got weirded out by bad english in the app a spammy feel. Didn't quite feel like sending all my sms info through
them..

edit; or maybe it was GoSMS? I tried them both and was not comfortable with either one. Felt kinda janky too

ya thought it was GoSMS. It seemed sketch to me.

 

[ChronoReverse]

The stock Cyanogenmod sms app does group messages doesn't it? It's simple but doesn't it work?

 

[Zaap]

Handcent has been working great for me. It handles group texts with my iPhone using friends just fine.

The latest update has made the interface better- not sure what all new features have been added.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

The stock Cyanogenmod sms app does group messages doesn't it? It's simple but doesn't it work?

Does it do emojis?

Those are the only two things I need, good group and emojis. I would just stick with stock android if it had emojis.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Okay, I googled it. How would emojis normally be entered?

The CM app is pretty much the AOSP one but with group messaging.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Okay, I googled it. How would emojis normally be entered?

The CM app is pretty much the AOSP one but with group messaging.

Usually there's a little plus sign that changes your keyboard into a panel of emojis.

AOSP has group messaging already so I dont know what CM changed to it.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Okay, I googled it. How would emojis normally be entered?

The CM app is pretty much the AOSP one but with group messaging.

4.2 already introduced group messaging. CM's group messaging is from stock