On the background color issue, does WA allow full customization of the bubble/background styles/colors and retain sender legibility (relative to the background color choice)?
Ok, I was all enthusiastic, writing another one of my essays about whataspp. And while looking up for all the reference links for you, to include in my reply, I came to find out some very sad, and recent development.
That very app I was about to recommend, a "special" version of whatsapp, came to and end for legal reasons. I'm broken hearted now
To Clarify:
Whatsapp is all good and dandy. You can visit their site and download it. The app is free for a year. And after a year, they will give you few months extension, and then you will have to pay for it 99 cents a year.
They are not going anywhere any time soon, with 250 million users, they are the number one chat app right now.
You can customize it to a degree. The background is whatever you want it to be, not just a custom color, but also an image of your choice, from the phone's gallery.
One cool feature is, that you can set different notification sound and LED color for groups or one-on-one chats. You also get your chats backed up, so when you move to a new phone, you can recover your earlier conversations.
I'm sure you will be surprise to find out, how many people you have in your contacts are using whatsapp. They cross reference contacts between users upon log in, so if any of your friends have it installed, you will instantly see.
Another great feature is pop notification option. Someone text you, it will pop up on your lock screen, and you can reply right away from there, without opening the app. I love that.
What was the whole drama at the beginning of the reply all about?
(still sobbing here....)
There was an alternate version of whatsapp, called whatsapp Plus. By a very nice, Dutch developer from XDA community. If you are not familiar, XDA is the Android's nerd Mecca. Lots of modified and safe, apps. From skype to google keyboards, entire operating systems, roms and what not. I get most of my apps from there.
I'm a huge fan and avid user of whatsapp Plus, and I was about to recommend it to you, when I found out, that Whatsapp has taken legal action against the developer, for copy right infringement. This special version allowed you to modify EVERY SINGLE aspect of the interface. Color of text, bubble, time stamps, status, background, header, notification, size of profile pics, turn them square or round, the list if endless.... I mean literally. It took me a week or so to fully refine what I wanted for my theme. On top of that, there was a theme forum, where people share ideas and XML preference file, which you could download and install, saving you the time doing everything from scratch. On top of that, there is an option in the Theme Gallery under whatsapp Plus settings, to view hundreds of themes and download directly. I'm really sad the app's site has been taken down.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1910437
Anyway, if you like to give the PLUS version a go, I do have in here and I don't mind to forward the file to you. I was just loading it on number of phones for my friends, last night.
Here is a diagram from XDA forum, every menu numer item in the setting, represented on the image to help users find what these said setting control.
You can see the vast modifications allowed by whatsapp Plus
http://imageshack.us/a/img850/2271/dzt.png
Well, that will be all. If you like to go with stock, you will find it in Play or links on whatsapp site.
If you like to go PLUS, let me know and I will upload it to my dropbox.
Cheers