16
votes
Recommendations about which Android texting app to use?
Could someone please recommend a text messaging app for Android that is reasonably secure?
Verizon is discontinuing their native texting (SMS) app. They recommend switching to Google Messages, but I would not like Google to have access to my entire text messaging history. I tried Signal, but my old messages don't transfer over (minor problem), and almost none of my family are willing to switch to Signal (big problem). When I search for advice, I get a bunch of AI slop articles and advertisements. So I figured I might have better luck asking here: Is there any text messaging app for Android that works well and isn't going to hoover up all my data?
I think for SMS only, the Google Messages app is the only one I know of. It supports RCS which is good for interacting with iOS, and if you're on Android and not jailbroken, I got bad news for you about Google and your data.
I personally also keep Signal, but then that's more because SMS is inherently not a secure messaging system anymore. So I keep it so I can send/receive messages with a few friends (mostly complaining about work), something sensitive in nature with my partner (such as a shared PW for ordering pizza, which we delete after) or as my default for a couple (literally two) friends. The adoption is unfortunately really hard to drive, regardless of how easy it felt to me to get started.
If you're willing to forego RCS, there are actually quite a few decent SMS apps out there, many of them FOSS. Some of the best are on F-droid. I've tried textra, QKSMS, and Fossify Messages with solid success in the past.
But none of them can use RCS because Google owns all of the RCS infrastructure on Android and puts it behind private, undocumented APIs that are liable to change at any time. Kind of sucks if you want to benefit from the (non-E2E, because Google servers) encryption of RCS or the improved group and image messaging RCS provides when chatting with iOS users.
This might change in the next couple of years, though, since it seems like Apple is attempting to open up the RCS standard and actually push for non-Google owned (perhaps even E2E) encryption.
I second this. I hated to get google messenger but since Signal doesn't support SMS at all any more, there is not better app that I could find. I really wish more people would adopt Signal. I only can use it for a handful of folks. As far as the data sucking goes, I think you are out of luck. (As are we all.)
I've been using Textra for years now. No real idea of data mining, but it's got lots of features I like, such as scheduled send (not available on Google messaging for the longest time) and custom conversation colors.
Thanks for the recommendation; I installed Textra and it has been working well for the past day or so. I think I'll stick with it.
Happy to have been a help!
I think with texting on Android you are going to be battling between convenience vs. privacy.
Google Messages might have some privacy concerns. I have not looked into it so cannot fully comment on the privacy side of things. However, Google Messages has made texting on Android with iPhone users a less painful experience for me. I do not care about the RCS read notifications, and honestly feel that RCS is kind of a downgrade to SMS since it requires an internet connection. However, Google Messages made group chats with Android and iPhone users not a painful experience. No longer am I plagued by people with iPhones setting up group chats and I get an MMS message from single people of what they sent in the group chat.
By comparison, Signal would offer the privacy. However, there is the lack of convenience that Signal offers since it is not the default messaging app. It is a big hurdle on smartphones to get people to switch from a default app to installing something different.
Two years later, I'm still fucking salty about Signal dropping SMS support. It was so good. So seamless. No trying to remember whether somebody had Signal... you just frickin text them, and if they have Signal, it'd be sent via Signal. And it was much easier to convince people to try it for that same reason that it would be seamless.
god im so mad
Only one I know if is QUIK, but it doesn't seem to support RCS yet. Like to the point that people on iOS I had been messaging before the switch stopped being able to without manually converting their texts from RCS to SMS. I don't know if that's something easily remedied on their side or not, but it proved highly inconvenient for my mom, so out of courtesy I switched back to Google Messages.
But aside from that, it was a pretty decent little messaging app.
Hmm, when I try to install it, it says I can't because it is made for the wrong version of Android. Maybe I'll try again later, but Textra has been working well for now.
I've loved QKSMS for years.
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=qksms&c=apps
I think its been over a decade since I've used a default Android messaging app.
QKSMS is what i currently use, and have used for the last 6 or so years. It does everything I want (SMS + MMS). I really like the message scheduling feature.
Before that, I really liked Textra and I even paid for the upgrade. The killer feature for me was the custom vibration patterns. I believe you could set them on a per conversation basis. I don't remember why I switched.
I kind of just take for granted that Google technically has access to a lot of my data. If you are concerned about this topic, you might want to check Permissions Manager in your settings to see which apps have SMS permissions. In addition to my SMS app (Google Messages), there are 7 other apps that can read my texts.
The last non-google texting app that I liked was Textra, which is great for customization. I just got bored of customizing my phone so I didn't bother reinstalling it after some phone upgrade a few years ago. I probably trust third party apps even less than I trust google though.
This is kind of the phase I'm at as well. All the customizing feels sort of... tiring? I don't know if I've changed, Android has changed, or some measure of both but I just don't look for third-party apps as much.
Similarly, I just kind of take for granted that Google can see, well, everything. In some ways it's horrifying if I think about it. In other ways, for all Google's ample flaws, I have to imagine they are more likely to keep my data safe-ish vs many third-party apps (if Google leaks my info, they aren't charging for it, and I assume they would find that abhorrent.) I also just find myself distrusting a lot of third party apps in general unless they are well documented and very open source and very well vetted.
I've used Pulse SMS for years. Loads of customization options. Scheduled messages/send delays. Syncs to a web app. As far as I know, no data sharing or anything like that.
Some features are paid, but you can pay something like $10 for a lifetime membership and skip the subscription BS. I definitely recommend, I've probably had this app longer than any other on my phone.
Pulse SMS was acquired by software IP hoarders and they privated the GitHub repo, it's no longer open source.
It didn't seem like open source was one of OPs requirements. It's a great app and they don't sell your data 🤷♂️ I still recommend.
Textra