By: Danny Ashton
One of the basic needs of a mobile phone is to be able to connect to other people by the power of texting. Text messaging, also known as SMS, is one of the functions never to be missed out in a phone. Although text messaging is an old function, it is good to know that its style has evolved over time. The Android market, for one, never fails to give SMS a modern touch. Currently, there are numerous applications that can help manage your SMS messages and present them in a visually appealing way but among these apps, the five hailed as awesome are presented below:
1. SMS Popup
This is a customizable application that comes with features to improve the efficiency of your SMS. SMS Popup’s user interface is simple and functional. One of its useful features is the popup dialog box which allows you to reply quickly once you receive a new message. Whenever you get a new SMS, a small dialog box will pop up showing the message and the person sending it. Moreover, you can simply reply or delete the SMS with this dialog box. What’s more amazing is that you can use the app’s voice button to use the speech-to-text feature. This is especially great when you’re already tired using your precious thumbs. Surely, SMS Popup is one must-have extension to your standard SMS application.
2. Handcent SMS
This is an enhanced SMS application that gives you a lot of customization options. This app shows text message conversations in a bubble design that is easier to follow and is more pleasing to look at as compared to the standard SMS system in Android. Still, you can change the background color of your conversations, choosing from several types of message presentations and importing new font packages to fancy up the lettering. Once you open Handcent on your Android phone, you will see a list of your contacts and to start a messaging session with a new contact, you either choose an existing contact or you hit a button at the top of the screen. After choosing a contact, you will see a screen containing a message stream from your most recent messaging session with that particular contact. You can now start the messaging and continue the stream. Handcent’s interface includes a phone button at the top of each messaging screen in case you decide to stop the messaging session and call the person. A Handcent widget on your phone also tells you if you have new messages and how many there are. Overall, this app lets you spruce up the look and feel of your Android phone’s messaging function.
3. ChompSMS
This is one great text messaging app that includes features like contact picture thumbnails, time stamps on messages which are shown in sequence, set-up of specific ringtones for contacts, and blacklisting of certain numbers. Compared to other applications, Chomp SMS is very much the same but the only difference is that it features ads along the bottom of your screen. Also, if you want to enable the quick call and contact picture functions, you just need to go to Settings, then customize Look, scroll to the bottom and check the last two features. The bonus point of this app is that it features a free text messaging service called TextFreek. However, it is only exclusive among TextFreek users.
4. GoSMS
Among the different SMS applications, this is the only app that offers security and back-up or recovery settings. Such settings are handy especially if you’re thinking of doing a factory reset or you want to change phones. The security settings are very similar to Android’s lock screen settings, which offer pin-based unlocking methods.
5. Google Voice
One of the features of this app is that it assigns a personal phone number to you as the user. You can use this number to make calls or to send text messages via the web. Google Voice’s online service archives your voice mails and text messages, giving you a guarantee that you will never lose your conversations. The downside of this app is that it lacks customization options or most of the features that other apps have. However, it makes up with its ability to send free text messages and to sync with your Google account. In case you’d run into Wi-Fi hotspots or you want to make some international calls, Google Voice would always come in handy.
