-
Best Messaging Apps
5 days ago - Desktop app without need of mobile device. Austin Kiekintveld. Open source client apps. Client apps are open source,.
Last updated on February 26th, 2018 at 11:11 pm Nowadays everyone tends to have a closer look at their online privacy. And rightly so, because with all the and hacking news hogging over the internet – there is no surprise why an average user feels paranoid about privacy. Not just I, we all at SpyAdvice, care about things like digital snooping, surveillance, data theft, and metadata – a lot. But companies and governments are growing on the idea of having accessible information prepared for different situations. In fact, anything you do online gets recorded – you must have seen customized ads that are pretty much based on the page you visited last. Yeah admittedly, these things sometimes can have a good impact.
Some departments or police agencies choose to have access to the ways people communicate – for general public’s safety. However, we appreciate app developers who share tools with us to decide what we desire to share or not. More precisely, the ones who create encrypted services and launch end-to-end encryption options that we can enable in applications. Because of anonymous messaging apps, we get assured that only us and those with whom we communicate get to read what is being sent.
Hence, no such as government, companies or even the apps developers themselves. When compared to emails or any other internet-powered activity, messaging is a much more ‘personal’ exercise – and it should always remain private. Even if privacy is not a significant concern for you, you might want to have some fun while talking to strangers without getting caught. Or maybe you have come to know that talking to strangers posses emotional benefits,? And yes, one might look to prank friends by sending an anonymous message. You see there are many reasons why an anonymous messaging app would be a great help, right? And again, in this post-Snowden era,.
So, having many good reasons in mind, we thought of easing your life. We have tested many apps and selected top 20 anonymous messaging apps for you, and here in this article, you will get to know about them.
But before that, let’s talking about what makes a secure messaging app genuinely trustworthy. Table of Contents. What makes a secure messaging app top? Because it is all about our lives and we at SpyAdvice care about security and privacy more than anything else; here, we will tell you about some essential things that make a messaging app useful – right now. The first thing is what we talked about a bit above already, the end-to-end encryption.
It comes with the idea that removes the possibility of the provider to hand over chat logs to governments or any third party. Our second thing on anonymous messaging app criteria is openness and quality of the code. Did the app go from an independent review? Has it been recently checked and audited for the flaws? Most of the frequently audited chat apps include Threema and, which didn’t fall short in our tests either.
One great thing is, their source code is public. That, in fact, is a good point on which base we can trust them. The reason is: Because they haven’t snick some stuff in the code which could pretty well override the encryption in some cases.
And, source code being available publicly means that there is a way for security researchers to check for intentionally installed backdoors or vulnerabilities. Subsequently, from all, WhatsApp has some excellent scores when it comes to privacy – stood tall as a very secure messaging source in our test. It is reaching even higher than the mainstream chat tools like Yahoo messenger, QQ, Blackberry messenger, Kik messenger and some popular ones from Asia. Whereas we have not listed it here on our list of anonymous mobile chat apps – you might ask why? Only because it is owned by Facebook now and the social giant accused of spying in the past. Who knows if all the Whatsapp conversation gets read by the Facebook algorithms?
But for now, I’ll stop because we are going to start talking about the main topic here – the top apps for anonymous messaging, right below. Signal Download: The Signal from Open Whisper Systems is probably the best encrypted messaging app for those who truly value their privacy. Good things to know about Signal are, it is a free app, provides voice calls services, and messaging – and all the things you do on it are end-to-end encrypted. So, this app can let you send anonymous messages to groups and individuals. You can also share media, place calls and send anything as an attachment to your mobile contacts.
Far from all, you don’t need to use PIN codes or generate any special logins. It is effortless to use! One of its most-praised features is, all of your messages get self-destructed after a while automatically.
Also, even if you back your phone up, this Snowden-recommended secure messaging app does not store any copy of your conversations. Signal’s source code is available online for the security experts to check for vulnerabilities, remember we noted above that if an app’s source code is public, that means it is one you can trust? Telegram Download: If you look at the top apps for anonymous messaging rankings, Telegram Messenger will always be there at the top – since users highly appreciate it. Because it is a user-friendly solution and among the fastest-to-setup messaging apps out there. One just needs to link his/her phone number to Telegram and then he/she can start sending encrypted messages to the cloud.
As like the Signal, you can choose to self-destruct your Telegram messages after a set period. Everything you do over Telegram travels from the encrypted servers, so let it be your videos, chats photos whatever, you can rest assured everything will stay protected all the time. Telegram features video and photo editing tools too, so you can have fun while having private chats at the same time.
Subsequently, the platform supports stickers and GIFs. Silent Download: Silent is another highly-praised anonymous social networking app available today. The company not only provides secure communication but it also offers safe devices. Blackphone is its popular secure device if you ever heard the name. Sounds familiar?
But today I decided to go for a handsome face on the poster of the cinema, and sat down to watch about 3 hours of typical Bollywoodfun. Download kushi songs.
The mobile messaging platform of Silent Phone offers self-destructing messages, encrypted voice calls, video or any other file transfer. The best thing about this anonymous messaging app is that the user is one who has encryption key and not Silent Circle. Which means, even all the data passes through Silent Circle’s network – but still, the platform itself cannot read anything. Anything not so good about Silent? The app is not free; you need to pay to use it – monthly charges start at $9.95. But still, if you value your privacy (which you must) – it is not a lot of money considering the benefits it gives.
Wickr Me Download: Wickr Me is yet another free anonymous texting app. It is not so famous as the previous ones we listed. But Wickr Me offers the same end-to-end encrypted-messaging environment as the other ones do. The app allows you to send videos, photos, voice messages or anything you wish to send to other Wickr users. Even though it is not a big-gun as far as the popularity is concerned, still the app features self-destruction messages feature – that is the primary cause of the popularity of all other top rated anonymous texting apps. Another incredible thing that we discovered in Wicker Me is, you can delete metadata such as geotags and the time of messages.
Besides this, it has a Secure Shredder feature which (in a secure way) erases messages, attached files and other kinds of data that someone can try to recover from a phone. Viber Download: A newcomer in the top apps for anonymous messaging is Viber. The app itself is pretty unique and compelling, though. It offers a color-coded system that shows how protected your conversation with the person you are talking is. Grey is for encrypted communications, green for encrypted communications with trusted contacts and red for problems with the authentication key.
Easy to understand and so much effective in itself, isn’t it? Another cool thing Viber has is, it hides chatrooms on the shared device. Let it be voice or text messages; everything gets tied to your number on it. Viber to Viber calls and messages are completely free. Unfortunately, you can call the non-Viber users only if you pay a few bucks.
IMessage Download: If you haven’t heard, there is an anonymous texting app iPhone that is encrypted – iMessage. The app has gained a lot of popularity among general users recently.
Whereas, several security experts noted that it lacks best practices. Its code has not gone through an independent review, and the app uses encryption developed by Apple itself. Also, recently an exploit got found that allowed a professional attacker to decrypt videos and photos sent to iMessages.
It seems to have many security issues; then why the users still use iMessage? You must be wondering, right? The answer is, as the messages are encrypted, Apple couldn’t read any of the messages. Also, even if the court orders, they can not provide any iMessage data of the user to court. Now that is nice!
Snapchat Download: In case you are looking to send a text message online from a fake number, Snapchat is a great option. It, in fact, is one of the most popular messenger apps used all over the world. One of the reasons behind its massive growth is, the app erases message contents as soon as the recipient finishes reading. The anonymous social app offers the option to send messages without showing your name as the sender.
Sadly you can only send a message of 140 characters long. All in all, Snapchat is a perfect option in case you want to get rid of the Facebook Messenger. Facebook Messenger Download: We all need to admit; Facebook Messenger is not an entirely end-to-end encrypted messaging platform – so basically it barely made this list. We have added it only because Facebook Messenger is the most used messaging app and can offer an optional end-to-end encryption feature.
The end-to-end feature of Facebook Messenger is called Secret Conversation, which you can enable for an individual chat from an iOS or Android device. As of now, Facebook’s Secret Conversation is not available on the desktops. You cannot send GIFs or make calls with it, but you can choose a time for the thread to self-destruct – pretty much like the snaps from Snapchat. As like Signal, the encryption from Facebook Messenger has the same Open Whisper System’s Protocol base. On Facebook Messenger, you and the other person from the secret conversation, have a key you can use anytime to verify whether your messages encrypted or not. It does not support group messaging, though.
Moreover, be sure to keep in mind that the other person you are talking can still screenshot and share the conversation that way with others. Even though it uses the very same Open Whisper Systems that Signal uses, and the Whisper Systems also confirmed it got implemented correctly – still, the final source code of Facebook Messenger is not available publicly.
Mustache Download: If you want to enjoy anonymous texting, Mustache is the tool you need. It is a fun app, more precisely you can send messages and jokes to your family or friends – and your identity remains completely hidden. Mustache works fine on Android and iOS smartphones, but it works great on tablets which don’t support SIM cards. You might be wondering why?
Because in this way, nobody can trace you. Unfortunately, the app allows only five free messages – for more, you will need to pay per SMS. You can also receive texts via it, and all the received texts are entirely free, you use the credits only to send messages. And finally, once your free credits end, you can purchase more right from the application. Burble Download: As the above ones, if you want to have fun you can send an anonymous text message to a friend via Burble. Wondering why so simple?
So, the app hides your identity and is very fast – and the costs are sufficient. However, this app is not recommended by reviewers because it is often used to mischief. Yik Yak Download: Android iOS ( anymore either) Ever wanted to post any information or your thoughts anonymously? If so, Yik Yak has got you covered.
It’s a social media app that is perfect for sending prank messages, without getting discovered. The app is most popular among college students and teenagers, more likely because they can share anything they wish without compromising their privacy. Note: As you can see the app is not available either on Google Play or Apple App Store anymore, the only way to download it is Google APK sources of it – but we do not recommend doing that in lights of best security practices. So download is APK at your risk if you intend to try it.
Kindly Download: Now, we’ll begin about the kindest app, Kindly. It probably is the best encrypted messaging app, made for a compassionate community and more than this, for helpful listeners. The app is ideal for those who desire to ask uncomfortable questions and for the ones who want to listen. It is a place where you can become a life coach. As a whole, an excellent app for those who want to chat openly in a threaded conversation feed and can go for one on one – if it is needed. Confide Download: Moving on to our list of top anonymous messaging apps, another great way for anonymous texting is Confide. If you ever wrote a text or email and wished it to remain secure and private, you will love this app. One of the most significant strengths of Confide is, it is among the few not-so-old anonymous social apps that prevent screenshots.
With self-destructing, screenshot-proof and encrypted messages, Confide will grant you the comfort that all your communication will stay private. Surespot Download: As like other anonymous texting applications on the list, this app allows you to communicate with your friends and family anonymously. The app creators seem to keep their promises on the privacy issues. Because Surespot Encrypted Messenger gives you the opportunity to send important symmetric encryption messages to anyone you want, without revealing your true identity. Another thing worth mentioning about the app is, the encryption is only for voicemails, and it is an open source software. CoverMe Download: The next app is, CoverMe. A free app that provides a private vault to keep your texts, videos, passwords, notes, and images hidden from the public eye.
Besides, the app provides self-destruction option for messages. But the most exciting part is, you can wipe them remotely. Wut Wut Download: Another great social app for anonymous texting is Wut Wut. It lets you share the non-permanent message with friends on Facebook. Of course they also most have a Wut Wut account, but end up sending messages without revealing your cover.
The app is an excellent tool to talk secretly; you can share unique moments to laugh and then the message will disappear forever. Psst Download: iOS (the app is coming soon on App Store) Starting off, this app doesn’t have a chat history or a chat ID. Here you can share your secrets, political views and other things that you can not usually do. Also, you need to know that the post will be available for 48 hours before it gets deleted automatically – for forever. Another fancy thing about Psst anonymous social network is, the private chats stay for a minute, and then they disappear permanently.
Truth Download: Well, this app has a funny name – and by all means is a fun way to send anonymous text messages. So, basically you can send messages to your contacts, and nobody will know who you are. But you can do it only with people in your contacts. The only thing as an identification whenever you send a text message to someone is an Owl. Of course, the receiver will never know that is you! Truth is not just a secure messaging platform; it will keep you entertained too – you get your name hidden in a completely different ‘cute’ owl name within every messaging thread you start! Popcorn Download: As tasty as it sounds, with Popcorn anonymous messaging app, you can chat privately with people that are one-mile away.
Alongside using it as an anonymous texting program, you can make use of this app to near you – as, with it, you can discover what other people around you are doing. The right uses of Popcorn app include: you can meet new people, converse with people at a live event, and share the meaningful thoughts amongst a local community. In case you are new in a city, you can find many things with this app. Also, the app is available in many languages including English Japanese, French, Dutch, Spanish, and German. Anomo Download: First up, this app is for meeting people that have common interests. It all starts with chatting using an avatar on Onomo, but one is free to reveal his/her real self if he/she wants – you control your privacy yourself on this social app, 100%.
So, the app helps you stay in touch with the people that match your personality. You can have one on one group chats with people nearby you as well as play the Ice Breaker games for discovering more about others. As soon as you are more comfy with your newly made friends, you can unveil some requests to know more about them. Bonus: Top 5 Websites to Send Anonymous Messages 1. Smsti.in It is not an app but is instead a platform that you can use on both iPhone or your PC. So if you desire to send an anonymous text message from your computer for free, Smsti.in is the tool you need. A great thing about the platform is, you won’t get caught – also, you receive a recipient when a message gets received by the recipient.
Unfortunately, it has a limitation of 160 words in a message. Also, as the domain name suggests, Smsti.in (.in is for India) is a website from India and you can only send a message to an Indian number using it.
SeaSMS.com As like Smsti.in, you can send an anonymous text message from a computer for free with SeaSMS.com. Undoubtedly, it is a great app for having fun with your friends. The great thing about SeaSMS is, unlike Smsti, you can send message to people who are half a globe away from you. Also, the site is pretty fast and easy to navigate from a user perspective. Bollywoodmotion.com Did you ever want to send a message to your loved ones online for free because of no balance or you probably wanted to prank your friends with long messages? If so, Bollywoodmotion.com has got you covered – it is a perfect anonymous messaging website to send a text message of 500 characters.
That much long message is not supported by many free sites to send anonymous messages available today. Besides that all, unlike other anonymous texting sites, you’ll not see an ad in your way of creating the message. Foosms.com Our next pick that is a big name in this area is, Foosms. What is great about it is that it’s secure and fast. Using Foosms, you can only send a 140 characters message. You should also note; this website gives you the chance to send only one message per day (every 24 hours) for free. TxtDrop TxtDrop is a free and simple text messaging site which allows you to send anonymous texts to any number you want, without unveiling your identity.
The website is for users only from the Canada and United States; you cannot send the message to any number outside the US or Canada with it. So if you live in USA or Canada, and want to send a fake text message to have a bit of fun, you can check TxtDrop and enjoy.
Final Words So, in this article, we listed best encrypted messaging platforms available on the market. All to give you the opportunity to keep your communication safe and secure from all prying eyes online! Our advice is to have your eyes open to everything and choose to inform yourself. Power is yours. With this extensive list of anonymous messaging apps (and websites), we are sure you’ll figure out many good things around (privacy-wise). Do you have an app to suggest? Do you use an anonymous texting app or platform that is not listed above and you think it should be?
If so, feel free to let us (and many other readers like you) know about them. We aim at keeping our list updated, so we definitely will add any good one you might suggest.
If you’re a longtime Android user, you’ve probably had friends or family members approach you and ask about why you choose to rock a Pixel 2 XL or a Galaxy S9 over something like the new iPhone X. Every Android user has their own reason for sticking to Google’s platform, whether it be down to the approach Google’s taken with software design and UI appearances, the modular base of Android, the ability to choose phones from all across the price range and still have a solid experience, or the high-quality camera performance we’ve seen on the likes of recent flagship Android devices. Maybe your reasons are more granular: you like the notification system, or the ability to change home launchers on command for all-new software experiences. Android is a mature operating system; there are thousands of reasons to prefer it over iOS. Presenting your iOS-diehard friends the same question will likely result in the same amount of varied answers, but more than anything, you’ll likely hear the same word repeated time and time again: iMessage. Apple’s messaging app is exclusive to their own devices running iOS or MacOS, and it’s one of the most popular instant messaging clients in the world today, particularly in North America.
While Android has no shortage of messaging clients, including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Google’s own Allo chat service, there’s no doubt that iMessage is one of the best messaging experiences you can have on the market today, and people are naturally drawn to the app like a social network. While the cluster of messaging apps on Android make it easy to message friends while gaining the same benefits iMessage can offer users, like read receipts, advanced messaging options, and larger photos and videos, plenty of Android users still turn to SMS to message their friends and family today, thanks to its implementation as a standard. Top 10 android apk sites. While SMS may seem a bit dated in 2018, it’s still a key way for users, especially in the United States, to communicate with each other for free, regardless of the operating system our phone uses. If you’re new to Android, you might be tired of using the messaging app that came preloaded on your device. There’s nothing wrong with using Samsung Messages or Verizon Message+, but they definitely aren’t the best applications you can use for texting in 2018. If you’re still relying on SMS, you want to make sure that your application meets a number of key experiences in order to properly satisfy your messaging needs.
You want the app to be smooth and fast, responsive enough to not lag when you’re firing out messages to your friends and family. You want to make sure the design is modern and looks good on your phone’s display. And of course, you want to look for the features that matter most to you. Whether you want a messaging app that can be customized to your liking, an app that can sync your messages or notifications to your computer or tablet to create a messaging network, or you want an app focused on keeping things slim and fast on your phone, we promise that there’s an app you’ll love on Android. If you’re tired of that old, bloated messaging app designed by your phone’s manufacturer three years ago, it might be time to upgrade to a brand new app.
Let’s take a look at some of the best picks. For most people, Textra is our go-to recommendation for messaging apps, and it’s easy to see why. This is developer Delicious’s second crack at an SMS application, after originally developing ChompSMS in 2010 for Android 2.x. At its core, Textra is built on the same ideas as Chomp, providing a similar visual style to the current version of ChompSMS, an app that is still developed side by side with Textra today. Textra is a simple, clean messaging app that is as intuitive as Google’s own messaging platform, while giving power users everything they could want in customization options. The first thing you’ll notice about Textra is how similar it appears to Google’s own messaging app, Android Messages. A colored banner runs along the top portion of your screen, highlighting both the Textra label, the menu icons, and your status bar.
Below, you’ll find your inbox, which is once again presented identically to how you might see your texts in Google’s app. Circular photos for your contacts run along the side of the app, presenting you with the option to select a conversation from your inbox along the side of the display. It’s a good layout for a messaging app, but at first glance, it definitely makes Textra seem like less than the fully-customizable messaging app promised by the development team. When you head into the settings menu of Textra, however, it becomes apparent that Textra is everything you could want in a mobile messaging app if you’re looking to tweak every aspect of the app. The settings menu is divided into five categories, each with its own options to choose from: General, Customize, Messaging, Sending, and “More Stuff.” General is pretty basic options, giving you the version info, the choice to upgrade to a Pro account in order to remove ads (a one-time purchase, well worth the, and the ability to reach out for support from the Textra team. Same goes for the Messaging option, which gives pretty basic options for SMS, MMS, and how your phone sends group messages. The “More Stuff” category is pretty basic too, though it has some neat options for stuff like web previews, which displays information on the links and videos you send to your friends.
It’s the customization options we need to spend the bulk of our review discussing, because they’re plentiful. Customize is split into two subcategories, “Look” and “Notifications,” each of which allow you to change the appearance of your texting experience. You can customize as much or as little as you want, though if you aren’t one to change the appearance of your applications, you might be happier in the long run with our runner-up application. Let’s start by looking at the options under “Customize Look,” which allow you change basically everything within the app outside of the inbox layout (and to be fair, what else would you change about it?). Textra uses a theme engine to allow you to pick the main color of your app, along with a secondary accent color.
You can match these colors as you see fit, with your bubble colors designed to match them. There are an endless amount of possibilities to choose from here, and the same goes for choosing the combination of your sent and received bubble colors (which, of course, you can set to match your theme). Each contact thread can be customized as well, but the easiest option to auto-shuffle the colors of your friends is to enable auto-theming contacts. From there, the choices for the app only get more granular.
The app icon can be changed, although if you’re using an icon pack, this won’t work on your device. You can choose a bubble style, with seven distinct options and shapes ranging from Twitter or Facebook-esque bubbles to the untagged bubbles we’ve seen from Android Messages. The emoji style can be changed between five moves, including modern Android Oreo emojis, the older blob emojis, the Twitter-style emojis, Emoji One, and iOS-style emojis.
It’s a neat feature, one we’ve wrote about before, and it can help you emulate the experience of using different devices. On your own platform. You can even change the default skin tone of your emoji, from the standard yellow or any range from white to black. And of course, customization options wouldn’t be complete without support for the choice between your font (system or Textra’s own style) and the size (measured in a percentage). Notifications don’t offer quite the same amount of options for control as the customization options above, but you can still change quite a few settings, especially after the last few updates to the app. The biggest option you can change here comes from the ability to edit the style of notifications that appear on your display when unlocked.
You can choose from the traditional Android heads-up style of notification, the Textra style of heads-up notification, or no sliding style at all. Outside of that, you can also change the LED notification color on your device, the vibration pattern when you receive a text message, whether to wake the display on your phone, the notification sound, and how SMS messages are received in a phone call and on the notification screen. It might sound like a long laundry list of features, but ultimately, the options available for changing how your device looks and feels are the true reason to grab Textra over another third-party messaging app. Textra was our top pick for messaging throughout 2017, and remains so four months into 2018, thanks to its routine updates and support, monthly new features, and the speed and fluidity that comes with using the app.
That said, Textra may have to change and adapt to the future of messaging in the coming years if it wants to stay the go-to app for messaging on Android, as we’ll explain below in discussing the runner-up. It’s an exciting time for messaging on Android, but until the future of Chat arrives throughout this year, Textra is by far our go-to application and our top pick for messaging.
Textra’s a free download, so there’s really no reason not to give this one a shot. It does feature banner ads at the bottom of the app, with the option to remove them for a one-time fee of $2.99. If you’re looking for a completely free, ad-free application, Textra might not be for you. Speaking as a long-time user of the app, however, the developer (Delicious Inc.) has done such a fantastic job of adding new features and supporting the app—not to mention replying to every user review on Google Play, positive or negative—it’s worth throwing them a few bucks without hesitation. Seriously check this one out. A year ago, we wrote about Google’s efforts to use Android Messages as a way to make implement support for RCS, or rich-communication services, into Android. At the time, we detailed the benefits of RCS—namely, it’s broad openness for support and the fact that RCS essentially works like iMessage between two devices that both feature the standard.
We were, nevertheless, hesitant to call it the future of messaging on Android. In April of 2017, RCS was only supported by Sprint, with T-Mobile and AT&T both operating their own non-standard forks of RCS and Verizon sticking to pushing their Messages+ software. Likewise, support for the standard was mixed among Android manufacturers; LG and Motorola both had signed onto the plan, but Samsung had decided against joining the RCS alliance.
At the time, it seemed fairly hopeless for RCS to become some kind of iMessage for Android. And our doubts are still in place, but thankfully, we finally have some good news for Android Messages and the future of RCS, as it seems Google has made one final push for RCS to become the success they foresaw a full year ago. While we were working on updating this article with our recommendations for SMS apps in 2018, Google’s plans for the future of messaging on Android became clear—and while Google Allo was launched in 2016 to try to win over converts to Google’s own messaging strategy, it seems obvious that moving forward, Android Messages will finally be the focus of Google’s messaging strategy. Before we can discuss what the next year of Android Messages looks like, however, we have to discuss the app as it exists right now.
Perhaps the most straightforward messaging client on Android today, Messages currently exists as an SMS client capable of handling your single and group messages, photo messages, and anything else you could need to communicate with your friends and family on this platform. As mentioned in our review of Textra, the overall design of Android Messages right now is very similar to what we’ve come to expect from SMS apps in 2018. There’s a lot here that’s pretty standard in modern SMS apps, like the colored banner along the top of the display, the organization of the inbox, the colored bubbles within each messaging thread, and the floating action button that make it easy to learn and use, even if it isn’t the most innovative platform. Google’s app is smooth, fast, and fluid, and switching to it is by far the fastest we’ve seen when it comes to organizing your SMS messages.
Unlike apps like Textra, which must start by categorizing your messages when you open the app after installation, Messages just seems to have this done right away. It makes loading into the app really simple and quick. The conversations display looks clean, with bubble-based message threads and contact images for your friends. The input area for your messages allows you to view options to quickly input emojis, though you’ll likely be better off using the emoji option on your phone’s keyboard, as we saw with Textra. There’s also a button that allows you to add stickers, photos, and locations.
For gifs and other multimedia, however, you’ll need to turn to Google’s own keyboard app, Gboard. When it comes to customization, the app isn’t nearly as fully-featured as Textra. Each contact can be assigned a specific color, though those rules don’t seem to carry over from thread to thread. Assigning your friend a color in your one-on-one messaging thread doesn’t mean they’ll have the same color in the group thread the two of you share with other friends. It’s nice to see the color customization options here, but everything else offered by Textra is missing, including the options we’ve seen for changing bubble shapes, emoji display options, and so much more. Everything we loved about Textra’s customization options is basically missing here, and while most people may find themselves getting by without support for adjusting the text size or the font, there’s one big missing feature we really need added to Android Messages: a dark mode.
Generally speaking, the app’s strength comes down to its simplicity. There’s no major feature that isn’t in other applications, which makes it an app to get because of its straightforwardness, not because of some incredible feature you can’t get anywhere else. Or at least, that’s the current reason to get Android Messages for your phone, if it isn’t already preloaded on your device. As we mentioned, Google has much bigger plans for the applications in the long-term that will likely turn the app from our runner-up to our recommended application, assuming all goes according to Google’s strategy. In short, here’s the deal: on April 19th, that Google had delayed work on Allo in order to focus on getting Android Messages to be the destination for messaging on Android. The plan is surprisingly simple, but relies on a bunch of moving pieces falling into place to get everything right.
Google has been building RCS support into Android Messages for about a year now, which as mentioned, brings iMessage-style support for advanced messaging over data and even includes a web client to send and read messages from. Unfortunately, carrier support is required for RCS to work properly, but Google has seemingly fixed this. Unlike a year ago, Google has managed to get most major companies on board for their plan, including all four US-based carriers (T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T, with Sprint having already been on board).
In addition to all the carrier support, Google has inked deals with eleven Android OEMs, including Asus, Lenovo (the company behind Motorola), Huawei, HTC, LG, and most importantly, Samsung, all agreeing to support RCS. Samsung won’t be shipping their new phones with Android Messenger, but will be building the support for RCS into their own messaging client (and of course, you can always grab Android Messages from the Play Store). Microsoft has signed on to support RCS, in addition to Google. Leaving Apple the major player outside the game. This new RCS system comes with a major rebranding, too; it’s now called Chat. Google has even already updated their Play Store listing for messages, including information on Chat, but the wait now comes from hoping all the pieces fall into place.
T-Mobile is planning on activating their “Chat”-based RCS components sometime this summer. But AT&T and Verizon have stayed fairly quiet, despite signing onto the plan. Until carrier support from all four carriers is there, Android iMessages won’t be fully complete. And of course, iPhones lack any type of support for RCS inside of iMessage. So until Apple includes that support, conversations between an iPhone and an Android device will continue to fall back to SMS and MMS. It’s an audacious plan, but it’s Google’s most realistic messaging plan yet, one we hope will manage to come true in the future. Unfortunately, Google has essentially forced the issue out of the hands of itself and into the carriers, relying on them to begin offering RCS services as soon as possible.
The good news is that Google’s messaging team is now managed by Anil Sabharwal, the man who led the team that created Google Photos, arguably Google’s best software release in this decade. The turn away from Allo towards an RCS-based universal protocol that automatically works on most, if not all, Android smartphones is a smart one. While it’s taken a while for Google to reach where is is today, one can only hope that a year from now, Android Messages will be able to stand apart from the rest of the pact as the messaging app on Android. QKSMS impressed us a year ago with its customization engine and the options delivered by the app’s dev team, and revisiting the app a year later has made it clear: this is a fantastic application, one worthy of being praised right next to Textra in our top selections spot. QKSMS’s design is slick and easy to use, arguably representing one of the most modern appearances on this list outside of Android Messages.
The app’s inbox interface looks like a cross between a basic SMS app and an instant messaging application like Facebook Messenger, but once you dive into the app’s conversation display, it looks similar to designs from Google, with bubbles that mesh together. We’re looking at version 3.0 of the app, which mas made a lot of changes in terms of the app’s visual appearance, and frankly, we couldn’t be more impressed with the direction this app is going. Diving into the settings option for a moment, we can take a look at the options and themes available to use here. Like Textra, you can choose from a number of shades of colors, which each color having darker and lighter gradients available to be used within the application. There’s a night mode here, that can be activated indefinitely or turned on automatically after sunset, though this has a catch to this we’ll mention below. Font size can be controlled, and like Textra, QKSMS has its own font and the option to use your phone’s system font.
Outside of the customization options, you’ll find some very brief options for notifications and delivery confirmations, an option to resync your messages, and the About page for QKSMS at the bottom of the menu. Last year, we wrote that one of the best features of QKSMS was its open-source nature, allowing for anyone who wishes to change aspects of the app to do so by diving into the openly-available source code. QKSMS remains open-source, but unlike last year, a new “Plus” tier has been added to the app that adds support for automatic night mode (as mentioned above), a full color slider for picking out literally endless colors, and additional upcoming features promised by the dev, including message backup, delayed sending and scheduled messages, auto-respond and auto-forward, and more. There’s no ads in QKSMS, and most people may find the free tier suitable for their liking, but if you want to upgrade, a lifetime license runs you just $2.99, with a license and donate option for $4.99. Overall, we’re quite impressed by QKSMS, even more so than last year. Definitely check this one out. Pulse isn’t the first application on Android to bill itself as an alternative to iMessage developed for Android.
In fact, it’s not even the only application on this list to use “iMessage for Android” as a selling point. It’s also a bit of an unfair comparison, because there is no true iMessage competitor on Android right now. On a technical level, what iMessage offers users on iOS can only be done by companies at the size and scale of Apple, and even Google’s upcoming Chat standard isn’t quite what iMessage is when it comes to security.
Putting aside that banner for a moment, Pulse actually is a good SMS application, that may just happen to be overselling itself in the process to make it something it isn’t. Starting with the basics, Pulse is an SMS and MMS application that comes from Jake and Luke Klinker, the team behind EvolveSMS, that features an inbox feature similar to what you may see from email. Instead of sorting your messages in a straight line, Pulse separates your messages into columns, featuring “Today,” “Yesterday,” “This Week,” and more. It’s similar to how Google Inbox sorts their messages, right down to the double-check mark icon in the right corner of each list that prompts you to archive older conversations to clear your inbox. The basic thread display inside a conversation looks exactly how you expect it to, with the option to customize primary and accent colors for the app or for each individual thread. The default bubble shape looks a bit dated compared to modern Android, thanks to the jagged edges along the side of the app, but thankfully, you can enable circular bubbles in the settings of the app. So Pulse looks pretty good, but the major feature of Pulse doesn’t come down to appearances or app design.
Pulse advertises itself as “iMessage for Android” because of its web sync, the ability to send texts from any device you own, including your web browser, native apps on Windows, MacOS, and Linux, your Android watch, your Android tablet, and even a television running Android TV. The one operating system that can’t send messages through Pulse: iOS, where Apple stopped the app from being published on the App Store (theoretically, the web version could still work). This support doesn’t come free, however. You can try it for seven days free to make sure it works well, but you’ll have to chose one of four payment plans to properly use the app:. 99 cents per month. $1.99 for three months. $5.99 for the year.
$10.99 for lifetime membership Pulse isn’t for everyone. It’s a solid application for messaging, and it’s only gotten better in the year since we first tested the app, improving the visual display and becoming less of a side project to Evolve (which we’ve removed from our list in favor of this app) and more like the app that Evolve would always turn into. Even if you aren’t interested in cloud sync, it’s a solid choice to grab as your main messaging application, but in the end, the people who will benefit the most from this application are those who are looking to send messages from multiple devices, like their laptop or tablet. If you do choose Pulse as your new messaging app, just remember that Android Messages may add similar web clients in the near future, natively and for free. Mood Messenger was new to us when we reviewed it last year, and revisiting it a year later, it becomes obvious that not much has changed since 2017.
That might not be a bad thing, however, considering Mood Messenger has a design unique to its own app, with some interesting choices and options available for its users. Mood offers a unique design, something not brought to the table by any of the other SMS apps on this list, and honestly, it’s pretty interesting. The first thing you’ll notice at the top of the display is a large clock, giving the app the feel of being your home screen, not so much your inbox. It’s interesting, but generally speaking, it doesn’t look quite as good as any number of the applications on this list. That’s subjective, of course, and thankfully, if you don’t like an aspect of the application, you can change it. The theme engine inside of Mood operates closer to that of Samsung’s own skins and themes on their devices than what we’ve properly seen from apps like Textra or QKSMS.
Best Messaging Apps For Iphone
Each theme customizes the clock font and the background behind the app, giving your app a brand-new look that changes the top portion of your home display and the colors of your conversation threads (you can change these outside of themes as well, including the bubble shape and the color of both received and sent). Themes are a cool idea, however, and a unique feature of Mood. Outside of the theme options, you can customize your emoji choice (though unfortunately, the default Android Oreo emojis aren’t available) and Mood has a couple features completely unique to itself, including “Party Mode.” The idea behind Party Mode is simple: once you’ve activated it, you’re unable to send messages with your phone unless you pass a test that requires some functional thinking. The idea behind this is to prevent you from sending messages that may be unwanted by the receiver when you’re inebriated after a long night. You can exclude specific contacts from this test in order to still text your friends or emergency contacts, but ideally, this will stop you from reaching out to your ex again and again. It’s an interesting idea, much like plenty of Mood’s features.
Ultimately, Mood is a unique package that doesn’t live up to the polish of some of the other applications on this list. It’s a quality app, don’t get us wrong, but there’s some interesting ideas here, including the ability to send your mood within a group chat and the ability to hide a specific thread from your home screen. Mood is also free, without in-app purchases or ads, which may make it a viable alternative to Android Messages. It’s not a perfect application, but it’s innovative, making it an obvious choice for anyone looking to try out something new on their phone. Textto is an app that pairs with the messaging app you already use, whether it’s the one included on your device by default or one installed from the list above. It allows you to type messages to your friends from any device with a web browser, regardless of where you are. Unlike Pulse, however, you won’t have to switch your messaging app to do it.
Likewise, while we’ve seen this kind of accessibility from apps like Pushbullet with its own respective web client, Pushbullet limits your ability to send messages without paying to 100 messages per month. Textto is a completely free utility, without ads, in-app purchases, or subscriptions. Being a work in progress, it isn’t perfect—not by a long shot—but it’s a step in the right direction, and one we’re excited to see develop in the future.
Signing up for Textto is simple. After downloading the application, Textto asks you to login with your Google account, after which you’re asked to accept the required permissions to send and receive texts, sync contacts, and use the phone radio in your device. Following setup, you’re asked by the application to load into the Textto web application. After signing in there with your Google ID (you’ll be asked to enable web notifications), you’ll see your recent messages appear on-screen, with the option to read back the content and to send new messages. Textto’s web app is basically just as powerful as what we’ve seen from similar utilities and from your mobile device itself. You can continue a thread that already exists on your device, including single and group texts. You can compose a new text to any of the contacts in your phone as well, by hitting the new conversation button on the left-side panel of the display.
Textto supports SMS and MMS, and you can attach photos from your computer by using the clip button in the lower-right hand corner of each conversation thread. Full emoji support is here as well, which means you can send texts as you normally would from your computer.
And to reiterate, there’s no need to change away from your current SMS app to something new. Everything here is sent through your existing SMS app, whether it be the standard one included on your phone, Android Messages, or Textra. Still, it’s not perfect. Textto had a few small quirks that made it a bit of a frustrating experience. Like many apps that run in the background, Textto requires a dedicated notification to always run in the background. Annoyingly, this means that you can’t get rid of the notification from your tray.
While Android does have the ability to disable notifications on a per app basis, as soon as you trigger this setting, Textto set off the battery monitor on our test Pixel 2 XL, constantly showing a “This app is using battery” notification. It was frustrating, to say the least.
Textto also seemed to have a bit of a slow response at some times when texting from the web, taking up to twenty seconds in our tests to send the message. And as with using Google Assistant to send texts, you won’t get any sent receipts from messages sent from the web client on Textto. Overall, Textto is an impressive start. Some frustrating user experiences aside, we can’t think of another application like this that offers the same functionality without any of the limitations imposed by other applications. Considering the app is completely free and doesn’t require ridiculous limitations on how you can use the app, it’s a solid offering for those looking to text from their computer—cheaper and comparable to Pulse (reviewed above), MightyText, and Pushbullet.
Textto currently puts a pretty clear emphasis on being free. We hope the app stays that way for a long time to come. Like Pulse, invi pushes itself as an iMessage competitor for Android, something that we often look at with a skeptical eye on the Play Store. Invi isn’t a clone of Pulse, however, nor is it a direct take off of what iMessage offers users on iOS. Instead, it’s a combination app, offering users SMS and MMS support while also acting as an instant messenger client like Facebook Messenger, giving you plenty of the same markings of iMessage like typing signals, read receipts, and more.
Invi does a lot here that’s interesting enough to keep it in the conversation, but ultimately falls victim to some bloat and a small user base. Invi gets a lot right, starting with its visual design. It isn’t quite as striking as apps like Android Messages, Textra, or QKSMS, but it looks good. The inbox display is clean and clear, using the basic design we saw from both of our top picks, and the conversation display is solid, albeit with two nitpicks. The first is minor; each conversation display has a background with visual elements that, while it doesn’t look bad, is a little busy as far as design goes. You can disable it though, and some of the backdrop choices actually look pretty clean. Ultimately, it’s up for you to decide what you like most in an application.
The second problem with invi comes with the bottom of the conversation screen, sitting above the keyboard as you type out your messages. Perhaps in an ode to the iMessage composition bar, the app gives you no shortage of options, including an emoji icon, a gallery and camera link, and a sliding menu that loads options for gifs, stickers and more. Known in-app as the “Awesome Bar,” it’s incredibly busy, and because it’s sandwiched between the composition box and the suggestions on the top of your keyboard, it’s also really easy to accidentally trigger. There’s no reason for invi to have so many shortcuts in such an easy-to-access space when they also feature even more multimedia—including, of all things, a meme generator—inside an extended menu, and the app would be better off hiding that content behind its own menu. The main idea behind invi is to supplement an iMessage-like experience, offering basic SMS support while allowing users with invi on both ends of the messages to automatically receive messages using data, complete with read receipts and more. It’s a solid effort, but it fails on a few points.
First, as far as we can tell, invi doesn’t currently support encryption on their messages. Considering it’s impossible to tell where these messages are going through, that could be concerning.
Second, at less than one hundred thousand downloads, you’re probably going to need to convince your friends to download invi before you can take advantage of this. The app obviously doesn’t work with anyone on iOS, and though there have been some promises for features in future updates going forward, as of April 24th, the app hasn’t been updated since October of 2017. Invi is a good idea, with a lot of promise assuming future updates are still to happen. Unfortunately, with Google’s recently-announced Chat standard rolling out over the next year, it may also be out of date before the app can even get off the ground. There’s a lot to like about invi—overall, we found the experience of using the app positive, and some of the features promised on the app’s FAQ are exciting, including the ability to disable the “Awesome Bar,” RCS support (which would be great for the future of Android), and more customization options.
Best Messaging Apps Iphone
Sadly, without an update in over six months, it’s unclear what the future of invi holds. It’s still a good SMS and MMS option, but its idea of a invi-to-invi future seems bleak at best. YAATA, like invi, has an odd name that might be recognizable when you’re scrolling through a list of SMS apps on Google Play.
Unlike Pulse or invi, YAATA isn’t promising to reinvent the wheel here. Instead, the app offers an easy way to send basic texts and photo messages with a fairly simple and clean design. The inbox for your text messages is fairly clean, offering something similar to Pulse’s layout of organizing message threads from today, yesterday, this week, and so forth.
It’s accomplished a bit more subtly than what we’ve seen from Pulse, closer in line with Textra’s circular photo icons on the left. All in all, it’s a clean, basic inbox that feel easy to use. A sliding menu to the left of your messages offers some additional options as well, including a night mode shortcut and the options for settings, notifications, and customization. Generally speaking, we were less impressed with the app’s messaging thread display. It doesn’t look bad, but it is a bit dated when compared to most of the other apps on this list.
The bubble shapes, in particular, don’t feel designed for 2018, though thankfully these can be customized in the YAATA menu to make them look cleaner and crisper. Sending a text with just emoji makes them increase in size, and scrolling through large group messages caused some display lag that made the app difficult to use.
One thing that was pretty great: the backdrops of each messaging thread use alternating shades of grey to designate different days for each message, making it easy to see when specific messages were sent in the thread. Though there isn’t much we could do to fight the scrolling lag in each thread, the customization options provided by YAATA were basically able to control the things we didn’t like about how message threads were displayed. Though customizing chat isn’t quite as intuitive as we’ve seen on apps like Textra, disabling or changing everything we didn’t like about the app was pretty simple, controlled through a list by checking or unchecking boxes. Overwide chat messages?
Easily disabled. The tail that made the message bubble seem straight out of 2013? Those giant emoji inside of the chat? Switched back to their normal size.
And again, this is all based on our own personal preferences, not necessarily something that you have to change if you like these visual flourishes inside of YAATA. Overall, YAATA is a pretty great alternative to both the messaging app included by default on your device and the apps on this list, especially if the visual design of Textra or QKSMS doesn’t do it for you. There’s a wide variety of options available on the free tier of YAATA, and even the paid tier only runs a cool one-time payment of $3.00. Overall, YAATA wasn’t our pick of the bunch, but it is a solid messaging application on Android. Definitely don’t count this one out.