Best Free and Fastest SMS App for Android?

[Nathanp05]

GoSMS/expandable has group feature for contacts and also manages the contacts in groups through expandable. However they forgot to have a search option for contacts. I have over 2000 contacts. I can not manage contacts in the groups through alphabetical scroll downs the thousands of contacts that I have. Looking for others.
Handcent does not do group messages. Wants other applications to be installed.

I don't know what phone you have been using handcent on, but I have used it on all three Galaxy phones and always had group messaging. When you go to new message and hit the little '+' button there should be a 'group' tab up the top in between 'contacts' and 'recent'. In there is the option to select a group from your contacts if you have set up groups in the phone previously. You also have the option to create separate Handcent groups and select to add them.

 

[rlb4]

Are there any things that GoSMS does that Handcent does not and vice versa?

 

[eirrom]

Pansi. Fast and lightweight. Tried them all and Pansi works the best!

 

[Nathanp05]

Are there any things that GoSMS does that Handcent does not and vice versa?

I haven't used GoSms a lot and what experience I have had with it was about a year ago, so many updates since then. So hopefully someone who regularly uses GoSms can add some comparisons.

The main reason I like Handcent is that you can change just about everything. As an example here are the things you can change in the conversation list settings: Import themes, display contact pics, background, contact font and font color, subject font and color, date font and color, divider color and message counter. So depending on the picture you have in the background you can choose different fonts and colors for every bit of text that appears on the screen.

Within a conversation you can change: import themes, conversation style, contact picture and size of picture, background, incoming SMS bubble color, incoming font and color, outgoing SMS bubble color, outgoing font and color, date font and color, smilies, hyperlink color incoming, hyperlink color outgoing, edit box font and color, contact font and color, sending progress icon, options to launch full editor, font and color of font in the full editor, message counter style, hidden phone numbers of contact, as well as more options to do a number of things like enable smart links, show names, transposition, MMS mode and so on.

With all the color change options you have R G B sliders and a transparency slider, so your bubbles (or text or anything) can be see through and you have a good amount of control over what color you end up with.

I would like to hear from someone who uses GoSms a lot these days as I am always keen to hear about cool features in other apps.

 

[juliswet]

Another option is the Verizon Messenger which is no price, too. It has a few customized remaking, but a amazing operate it has is the ability to save/backup/restore sms.
Specials Gift

 

[Nathanp05]

Having a backup service built in would be nice. Handcent does have all sorts of backup options that will not only backup your messages, but your entire phone, but you do have to pay for them. I have been using 'SMS backup and restore' and it works really well, nice and simple. It just creates a small file that you can email to yourself and download to another phone and there are all your messages again! But having something like that built into a messaging app would be cool.

 

[cluelezz]

Of those, I like Go as long as the chat, and that page for themes and what not is disabled (normal running mode setting). I'm using Youlu now though. It's contacts/dialer and sms all in one.

 

[Nathanp05]

Of those, I like Go as long as the chat, and that page for themes and what not is disabled (normal running mode setting). I'm using Youlu now though. It's contacts/dialer and sms all in one.

I haven't used Youlu yet, but if you are looking for an all in one dialer/contacts/messenger, then Contapps is pretty good. It has a little penguin as the icon in the play store. It allows 'free' (data) messages to other Contapps users. It also has a pretty good interface for facebook, twitter, linkedin, foursquare and a few more. When you are viewing any contact it has the FB, Twitter etc buttons down the bottom so you can see what that person has posted.

I don't bother with FB and use G+ instead, but I have yet to work out if you can change or add different networking sites.

 

[topcat625]

I like CHOMP gives me no problems.

 

[TinkerB3ll]

As a long-term user of gosms I have to say that though it is very capable in some respects and very customisable, it is not without its share of issues, some of which have been around for Yonks but the devs seem to concentrate more upon adding new and/or unwanted features rather than bug-fixing.

*Private contact messages will *occasionally* be displayed in full in pop-up notifications despite all settings being configured correctly.

*If you use the private-box feature, you are able to enter it without a password being required in certain circumstances.

There are other, smaller issues, but those two irk me the most.

As pointed out in an earlier post, SMS apps are pretty thin on the ground for Android, but I am going to hunt for one that fits my needs more, but finding one that has the security capabilities I need, isn't bloat-ware and doesn't contain ads, is going to be difficult I suspect. I have, in the past, tried all those mentioned (except "lemonsms" as it isn't compatible with my aging tablet) and found them flawed in one respect or another, but hopefully they've improved over time.

 

[myshkin]

I have used handcent since my first android in Feb 2010. I have played around with a few others, but they never lasted a full day. I don't use Go launcher, I prefer Launcher Pro. Like others have stated, this is one of those things that is preference.

 

[xxkid123]

A few apps to add: Textfree and Google Voice. Textfree has a desktop site that syncs your text messages and allows you to text from there. Google Voice gets you voice mail and free texting from Google itself. It does require you to set up from desktop, but I prefer it. Google already owns my life, I have nothing to lose XD. Can't say the same for apps like Textfree, Handcent, etc.

 

[jova33]

I found this thread looking for a new SMS app. I noticed GO SMS is pushing spam ads as text messages..... time to switch. any adfree SMS apps?

 

[bowlingotter]

I'm skeptical of the idea that GO SMS is the cause of the spam texts. I've been using it for months and never received one.

I was a Handcent user first with my Droid X but once I switched to GO SMS, I never looked back. Handcent always felt a bit laggy where GO SMS was significantly snappier, and much more attractive overall. I'm not a big fan of the other GO apps, but GO SMS is excellent, best I have come across.

The doodle function is a lot of fun too if you're texting someone else who's also using GO SMS.

 

[jova33]

It seemed to have only been on one of the updates. I'd get a text msg notification, check my texts, and there's an ad for GO Chat showing up as a new text msg.
I was tired of all the ads for Go chat already plastered all over the app, and getting an ad disguised as a new text was enough for me to quit using it.
If they don't do it anymore, good for them, I'm still not going back to Go SMS.

 

[pinappu]

The fight is still between GoSMS and Pansi.