Text messenger options

[tube517]

Android Messages, Textra, Chomp, Yaata, Pulse are some that I have used. I'm using Android Messages now because of the Web messaging.

 

[Clementine_3]

^^^^ exactly that except Yaata, never tried it.

 

[no one]

Next SMS. Nothing even comes close!

 

[Medstar1]

Next SMS. Nothing even comes close!

I've pretty much just used stock. What does Next SMS bring to the party?

 

[Hadron]

It's the application formerly known as Handcent, which was one of the first third party SMS apps.

Tastes are personal, so my advice is to try a few and see what you like. They all use the same message database, so you can swap between them just by changing the default app (and each will ask you to make it the default if you open it, so no digging through menus required).

 

[no one]

Medstar1:
I've pretty much just used stock. What does Next SMS bring to the party?

As the Hadron mentioned, tastes are personal. There isn't a message app that sends or receives messages better than an any other app. For me, what Next brings to the table is, customization. Tons and tons of customization. Every single aspect of the app. I have used it for years. I've tried others, many others, they all pale in comparison.

 

[tube517]

One thing to watch later this year and next is to see which will be compatible with RCS/Chat. I guess the 3rd party texting app devs are waiting on Google.

 

[tube517]

^^^^ exactly that except Yaata, never tried it.

It's a good app but my phone was a budget phone (at the time, Zmax Pro) and it had lag issues w/YAATA. I haven't used YAATA since 2016-17 but I liked it.

 

[Hadron]

One thing to watch later this year and next is to see which will be compatible with RCS/Chat. I guess the 3rd party texting app devs are waiting on Google.

Is Google not already compatible?
Mind you, the majority of networks worldwide haven't adopted it yet, which will also slow development for third party apps (especially if developers are based in countries with zero RCS adoption - reduces incentive and makes testing harder).

 

[svim]

RCS is a solid solution to the inadequacies tied to SMS/MMS (both protocols are simply too dated to keep up with current tech) but even if all the carriers were to magically support it tomorrow, Apple has already stated it will not adopt it. We (the consumers) are lucky that Apple allowed support for SMS/MMS in its iMessage platform, otherwise there would be even more disparity when it comes to texting. Until Apple opts to include it, RCS is destined to be just another one of several different texting protocols, and SMS/MMS will remain as the lingua franca of text messaging.

 

[tube517]

Is Google not already compatible?
Mind you, the majority of networks worldwide haven't adopted it yet, which will also slow development for third party apps (especially if developers are based in countries with zero RCS adoption - reduces incentive and makes testing harder).

I read something about Textra is waiting on Google to release official Android Messaging API's to use. Textra has announced they do plan to integrate RCS.

https://phandroid.com/2016/11/11/textra-rcs-messaging/

https://www.androidheadlines.com/2016/11/textra-sms-support-rcs-advanced-messaging-2017.html

 

[Hadron]

RCS is a solid solution to the inadequacies tied to SMS/MMS (both protocols are simply too dated to keep up with current tech) but even if all the carriers were to magically support it tomorrow, Apple has already stated it will not adopt it. We (the consumers) are lucky that Apple allowed support for SMS/MMS in its iMessage platform, otherwise there would be even more disparity when it comes to texting. Until Apple opts to include it, RCS is destined to be just another one of several different texting protocols, and SMS/MMS will remain as the lingua franca of text messaging.

SMS is a part of the GSM standard, so iPhones have to support it. They could of course not allow customers to use it for messaging (that was added not long before commercial release, and some of the early networks too a few months to offer it), but in reality they had no choice there either, since they were launching in a world where it was overwhelmingly popular and would never have got off the ground without it.

Apple refusing to use RCS is just another way in which the walled garden is bad for its users (Jobs originally talked about making iMessage available outside Apple, but clearly the idea of using it to lock people into "the ecosystem" won out). The Lightning connector is another prime example: its purpose is to prevent customers switching by ensuring that their accessories are incompatible with anything else, and to bring in royalties from anyone who wants to build accessories. The first of those is clearly bad for users, the second is bad for accessory manufacturers (who need to build 2 versions or else focus on a fraction of the market, and of course pay for a proprietary interface rather than a standard). The only people who gain from its existence are Apple themselves.

 

[svim]

SMS is a part of the GSM standard, so iPhones have to support it. They could of course not allow customers to use it for messaging (that was added not long before commercial release, and some of the early networks too a few months to offer it), but in reality they had no choice there either, since they were launching in a world where it was overwhelmingly popular and would never have got off the ground without it....

But GSM, or CDMA, isn't the issue. The iMessage protocol is based on all traffic flowing through Apple's servers, be it over a GSM or CDMA cellular network, or a WiFi/broadband-based network. Apple, famous for adopting established file formats and common standards based only on arbitrary internal policy, could have just avoided SMS and MMS compatibility and it still would be amassing a huge amount of disposable wealth with its dedicated, loyal user-base continuing to be only mildly interested in compatibility issues with the rest of the world outside the Apple-verse.

 

[Hadron]

My point was that the iPhone had to support GSM (CDMA has only ever been a tiny niche globally), and SMS is baked into the specification. So technically the iPhone had to support it.

But more importantly, when the iPhone launched SMS traffic already easily exceeded voice usage, and was a big revenue driver for the networks (due to charging structures and mixed network technologies you were slower with this in the States, but even so I believe that statement still held there in 2007). So no matter what Apple's tendencies, if they'd launched it without SMS support it would have been dead on arrival, since customers wouldn't have bought a phone that couldn't text (and when you can only text your one early-adopter friend who also owns and iPhone that comes to the same thing), and the networks would never have taken it up anyway if it couldn't have brought them messaging income.

It's true that it launched without MMS support: Jobs argued that if people wanted to send media they'd use email. But the market realities forced them to introduce that within a few months (and MMS was a niche in comparison to SMS).

Now the situation is reversed: Apple have a large and loyal (or locked-in) user base while RCS is the new entrant. So now they are in a position to say "we're fine in our walled garden, and we don't want to join RCS because that will leave nothing special about iMessage and remove a barrier to people switching". But back then they were not able to do that.