Messenger: Text Messages, SMS

Review by eFreeware

If you text a lot and want more control over what your messaging app does, this one is worth a look. Messenger: Text Messages, SMS is a free Android app from aMessage studio for sending and receiving SMS and MMS, and it leans on the extras around the basic conversation: spam blocking, a private box, scheduled sending and heavy visual customization. The install numbers back up that it has found an audience — more than 10 million installs and a 4.4 average across 85,059 ratings — which is a reasonable sign for a category where people rarely switch apps on a whim.

The core job is ordinary texting, and the developer describes it as easy, expressive and fun. Messages can be plain text or MMS, and the app handles pictures, GIFs, emojis, videos, audio clips and stickers. Group SMS is supported, and the developer pitches the app as a place for unlimited text, video and audio messages. If your texting is mostly short replies to family and friends, the basics are covered; the interesting part is everything sitting around them.

What the spam blocker and private box actually do

The spam blocker is the standout feature, and it works the way you would hope: a blacklist lets you block senders you do not want to hear from, so unwanted messages stop landing in your main conversation list. That matters most for people whose number has been circulating for years and who get a steady drip of promotional texts. You decide who goes on the blacklist.

The private box is the more unusual addition. You can hide its icon inside the app, protect it with a password, and give the icon and name a custom label so it does not stand out. Conversations placed there are hidden automatically. For anyone who shares a phone with a partner, a child or a colleague, that is a meaningful bit of separation between ordinary chats and the ones you would rather not have visible over your shoulder.

Both features are the strongest argument for installing this one. What I like about the approach is that neither requires you to change how you text everyone else; they sit alongside your normal conversations.

Scheduling, theming and the smaller conveniences

Scheduled sending is the third feature that stands out. You can queue an SMS or MMS to go out at a fixed time, which the developer frames around remembering birthdays and other dates that matter to people close to you. Practically, it means you can write a message when it occurs to you and have it arrive when it is appropriate, rather than at an hour that would wake someone up.

On the presentation side, the app offers a large set of themes, dark mode, and control over chat bubbles, fonts and colors. You can also set your own pictures as the background of a conversation. This is the sort of customization that people either ignore completely or spend an evening on, and there is no harm in having it available either way.

The remaining conveniences are the ones you notice only when they are missing: support for two SIM cards, the ability to pin important conversations to the top of the list, and a search that reaches across your messaging history for text, images, videos, places and links. Search is the one I would value most over time, since finding an address or a photo someone sent months ago is otherwise a matter of scrolling.

Costs and requirements to keep in mind

The app is free to download, and it is supported by advertising. It also offers in-app purchases, so some form of paid option exists inside it. The developer also invites suggestions and comments by email.

The app can be set as your default messenger app. It is a decision worth making deliberately rather than casually. If you are not ready to move your everyday texting to a new app, the features here will not do much for you.

There is also the privacy policy and user agreement the developer links to. Those are worth reading, as they would be with any app in this category.

How I would approach it day to day

If you decide to try it, I would start by setting it as the default and letting your existing conversations come across, then spend a few minutes on the two features that justify the switch. Add the numbers that keep sending you junk to the blacklist first, because that is the change you will feel immediately. After that, set up the private box with a password and a discreet name, and move across only the conversations that belong there.

Scheduled sending rewards a small amount of planning. The natural use is for recurring dates — a birthday, an anniversary, a check-in with someone in a different time zone — where you can write the message in advance and let it go out at the right moment. Doing this once a month is probably enough to make the feature worthwhile.

Theming and wallpaper options are best left until you have used the app for a while and know which parts of the interface you look at most. Changing bubble colors and fonts before you know how the conversations are laid out tends to be wasted effort. Search, by contrast, is worth learning early, since knowing it can pull up old images, links and places changes how freely you share things.

The latest update is described simply as improvements and optimization, which is typical maintenance rather than a new direction. The app was released in October 2020.

A capable replacement for a plain SMS app

Messenger: Text Messages, SMS is a sensible choice for anyone who texts heavily on Android and wants spam control, a hidden space for private conversations and the ability to schedule messages, all inside the app they use every day. The customization options are a bonus rather than the reason to install it, and the search across old conversations is a quiet but useful addition.

The trade-offs are straightforward. It is ad-supported and includes in-app purchases, and it asks to become your default messenger, which is a real commitment. If you are happy with the texting app already on your phone and have no need for a blacklist, a private box or scheduled messages, there is little here to pull you away.

For everyone else — particularly people juggling two SIM cards, dealing with persistent spam, or sharing a device — the combination is appealing, and the install base and rating suggest it holds up for a lot of users.

What's new in version 2.1.3

Thanks for your support. This version: - Improvement and optimization.