Best Free Texting Apps For Android
Anfos Sin
The love for texting predates Android by years, but with smartphones and advancements like RCS, staying in touch with your friends and family with the best text messaging apps is better than ever. Although it's true that encrypted messaging apps are replacing traditional texting for many, there's still a large number of users who prefer simple texting apps.
There is a variety of text messaging apps out there, but not all of them are going to be a good fit. Some native apps can have trouble with MMS (especially when RCS is involved), while others are just poorly laid out or lack basic features. However, if you're looking for the best Android messaging app, you have a wide range of third-party options to pick from.
While some of these text messaging apps embrace minimalist design, others are packed with features like backgrounds, fonts, and categories. In the end, there's enough choice that it comes down to what you want from your messaging app. Read about them all and take your pick!
Messages is Google's official SMS app, featuring a simple interface and loads of features like high-quality video sharing, emoji reactions to messages, and much more. It also supports Google's RCS standard, which allows for iMessage or WhatsApp-like features such as read receipts and larger file transfers. The best part is, this text messaging app is completely free to use.
Pulse SMS is an interesting and extensively customizable text messaging app for Android, but that's not its real draw. Pulse helps bring your text messages to all of your other devices, from tablets to computers. It also offers a password-protected private conversations box in case you need to protect the identity and messages of your sources, for example.
A long-time favorite, Textra is a clean-looking SMS app loaded with plenty of features for hardcore users. Textra offers a slew of customization options with various theme colors, notifications, and per-contact settings. There's even built-in SMS scheduling, quick replies, improved group messaging, SMS blocking, and a whole lot more.
Chomp SMS is one of those apps that have seemingly been around since the dawn of the Google Play Store. It comes with features such as passcode lock, dual-SIM support, birthday reminders, scheduled messaging, and more. While Chomp SMS works great as a default SMS client, you can also take advantage of its integration with services like Pushbullet or MightyText for cross-platform support.
SMS Organizer started off as a Microsoft Garage project and has turned into quite a popular SMS app alternative for Android. It automatically organizes your inbox, while offering smart assistant options. These include creating tasks if you need to pay a contact back, for example. You can also automatically backup your messages to Google Drive to keep them secure in the cloud.
Handcent is another app that has seen quite a transition over the years. The texting app is now named Handcent Next and comes with major features such as desktop notifications, cloud backups, and more. Handcent Next continues to add features and customization options like ChatGPT support, the ability to use stickers and GIFs, and passcode-locked conversations.
Another texting app to keep in mind is Samsung Messages. This app comes preloaded on Samsung Galaxy phones, like the high-end Galaxy S24 Plus as well as cheaper Samsung phones like the Galaxy A54 5G. This messaging app has supported chat features, like read receipts, for a while now, but has added RCS for better compatibility.
Samsung defaults to Google Messages with its latest models, but you can still use Samsung Messages by switching your default SMS app in settings. If you like the Samsung Messages app but were thinking about switching for RCS support, you can try enabling RCS in the settings first.
There are so many different SMS applications on the Google Play Store, so deciding on the best texting app for Android can be quite a difficult task. But sometimes, you don't really need to look too hard. Google's Messages app comes pre-installed on most (if not all) of the best Android phones and is a great way to send/receive text messages. It has many great selling points that make it the best text messaging app for Android.
Google has done such a great job with Messages over the years. Starting from RCS chatting features to file sharing and video calling, the app has really grown into its own. What was once a bare-bones texting app has now become one of the best Android apps out there. You can use the Messages app from your computer, view YouTube videos in-app, reply to individual threads, give emoji reactions, chat bubbles, star important messages, and do a lot more. Once Magic Compose is more widely available, Messages will become even more powerful than it is now.
If, for some reason, you don't want to use Google Messages, we recommend Pulse SMS as the next best messaging app. This comes from the makers of Talon for Twitter and is just as customizable, if not more. All your conversations are secured by end-to-end encryption, and you can easily set up and take advantage of the web app to manage texting on your computer instead of reaching out for your phone.
Andrew Myrick is a Senior Editor at Android Central. He enjoys everything to do with technology, including tablets, smartphones, and everything in between. Perhaps his favorite past-time is collecting different headphones, even if they all end up in the same drawer.
Maple Media purchased the app from the original developer in 2020. Unfortunately, they hiked up the prices quite a bit. Luckily, the SMS portion of the app is still entirely free. You only have to pay if you want to text from other platforms, like PCs, or back up your messages online.
Textra SMS is among the most solid texting apps on the list. This popular and highly stylish SMS app is also one of the highest-rated on the list. It comes with a theme picker (you choose the colors yourself), a dark mode, floating notifications, delayed sending, slide-to-delete, and plenty of other features. It also has direct support for Android Wear, Pushbullet, MightyText, and others. You can use most of the features for free.
Perhaps mms/sms may work better with android than with iPhone. In my experience texts by mms/sms with iPhone are usually delayed. This can cause minor to major inconveniences. However the absolute best way to ensure good communication is the old school voice call.
While iMessage seems to be "best" according to someone, the biggest drawback is that it is a iPhone only messaging app. Apple has been long criticized for not opening up it's iMessage app for non-iPhone users. And the best for MMS is like SMS, you can send across platforms and also, as you already know, it does not cost you any data (at least for Canadian market)
not sure why and how "android users need an additional texting app in order to ensure their texts are delivered within a more reasonable , but still mostly late time frame." If you meant Android users need another app to send iMessage like of message, then no additional app needed.. The stock Samsung text app and Google message app can send both SMS/MMS and RCS (which is the iMessage equivalent for Android)
iMessage requires both user to use iPhones. That makes it not the best becasue many users can't use it. It also uses data. Since iMessages uses data, better to use a messaging app that everyone can use. For real texting, it doesn't matter much which you use. They all work about the same.
iMessage includes their own instant messaging system in their messaging app which needs the internet and only between other idevices. It NEEDS to use the standard SMS texting to send anywhere else. The same with MMS. It can send pictures within itself but not to other kinds of phones. It NEEDS to use the standard MMS texting to send pictures to anywhere else.
Additionally, there are basic theming options, search support, spam protection, and a lot more. You can also send group texts, emojis, GIFs, stickers, videos, and audio messages using the app. Notably, you also use Google Assistant within the app to help you with things like quick responses, looking up locations, saving notes, and more. Google regularly adds new features and improvements to the app, so you can expect it to evolve a lot more over time too. Some notable additions over the past months include AI-powered messaging sorting, auto OTP deletion, and the ability to star important conversations. Google Messages is free to download and use. New versions of the app have also been updated to support Android's Material You theming.
Chomp SMS is one of the more popular picks that's been available for over a decade and is consistently recommended as one of the best texting apps on the platform. The app comes with a number of very useful features, including a passcode lock, scheduled messages, and a quick reply popup.
It works perfectly with dual-SIM devices and supports group messaging, MMS, SMS blocking, and lots more. Chomp is also great at customization. You can change notification LED colors, ringtones, and vibrate patterns for different senders. Additionally, the app is compatible with PushBullet, Yappy, and Wear OS for notifications and replying.
Pulse SMS is another great texting app for Android. It works very well and comes with a lot of useful features too. With Pulse, you get support for sending text messages from any platform, per-contact customization, blacklist support, and backup/restore function.
QKSMS is a simple and open-source app. Its clean and intuitive design makes it easy to use, and it offers support for MMS, group texting, scheduled messages, and search functionality. With QKSMS, you can also backup and restore your texts, block specific conversations, and create a blacklist of unwanted numbers.
In addition to these features, QKSMS also uses the 'Should I Answer' service to filter out spam messages, and it is compatible with Wear OS. For added convenience, the app also includes a night mode and various accessibility options.
f0a16ac21c