this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
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DeGoogle Yourself

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Does anyone know of an open-source alternative to Google's "Messages" app, which takes care of SMS/text messages on my phone?

I was looking for open-source alternatives on PlayStore and F-Droid but can't really find anything – most apps seem to target some extra purpose than simply handling SMSs.

(Edit: I'd like to stay away from the "Simple Mobile Tools" line because I don't know if it's open source, and I don't like the way they promoted some apps – forcing users to update to pro and similar.)

Cheers!

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

QKSMS all the way, you can schedule messages, block, archive, create back up, change colors. No ads.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I personnaly use QKSMS. It's available on F-Droid and it's quite nice

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Not Op, but thanks for the recommendation. I've got chomp right now. It's all right, but I don't really love it

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I used to use all the Simple tools, even paid for them, unfortunately the dev changed monetization to a shitty model and I got locked out.

Since then I moved to QKSMS. Its on F-Droid and despite some initial quirks I'm very happy with it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] – thank you for QKSMS, it sounds good. Strange because it doesn't appear with an "SMS" search on F-Droid – but now I got the link :)

Note: I read some users recently complaining about it missing some SMS; let's see if that's still a problem.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

The play store version is out of date (version 3.9.2, last updated 2021-02-07).

You should get it from F-Droid or Github (version 3.10.1, last updated 2023-01-16/2023-01-19).

Edit: Apparently it was only a small update and it's still practically abandoned.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This update was very small, just handling a start up crash and an error involving how question marks are handled. I would still consider this project unmaintained.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Cheers, got it from F-Droid (another step in de-googling :)

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The SMS app from Simple tools is bad anyways. Group messaging is totally messed up. I threw in the towel when i responded to a group message and it sent an individual message to each person in the group.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You can fix that in settings (and I did), but it's still wild that the default setting for group texts isnt MMS. What I've found even more frustrating is that there seems to be no way to make it show you a name on the contacts in a group chat. It only shows the first letter and a random color for each individual person. Can be tough to figure out who's who even amoung my closest friends just because half their names start with the same letters.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

I'm also interested in this since Signal stopped supporting sms for being unsecure...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I wonder if any of these listed alternatives support RCS, SMS/MMS is an incredibly old and insecure

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

RCS is proprietary. Very unlikely there will ever be an implementation that is open source or foundation driven.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Seriously? The standard that we've been finally getting users on is proprietary? You've got to be joking

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Rcs isn't proprietary, google hasn't given anyone the tools to develop with it on Android.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

( •_•)>⌐■-■

(⌐■_■)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I honestly don't like RCS, because when I send an SMS, I want it to be using that old protocol that doesn't depend on network functionality. Whereas any real chatting I usually take using more secure apps. SMS for me is "hey, you're not responding on our normal chat programs, is your wifi dead or you roaming?" kind of situation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Agree about the security. I don't use SMS regularly, but some people message me with that in emergency situations, for instance if they don't have wifi or data. It's also still used to get temporary authentication codes.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I'm using QKSMS from F Droid. Last version is from January of this year.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

QKSMS is the only currently viable open source choice.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Simple mobile tools pro version are completely open-source and avaliable for free on fdroid. But of course I also paid on google play to support the developer, then use everything on f-droid.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I'm all for supporting developers. Usually I test an app for a month, and if it works well, I make a regular donation (else I uninstall it).

However, while trying out the free version of "Simple Gallery" from Simple Mobile Tools, they sent an update that suddenly made it only last for 14 days, then you had to upgrade to premium. I simply don't like this kind of behaviour, that's why I don't use their products.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That is really disappointing. Although it is perfectly fine for developer to ask for money, especially for FOSS app. It seems like their communication is not exactly on point.

I guess the best course of action is to try on fdroid, if you like it buy on Gplay (or just donate if it not terribly inconvenient), and continue to use the fdroid version.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (7 children)

You won't find anything RCS. Google didn't release any API, on'y their app.

Silence, and QKSMS are both great.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Had not heard of Silence, Cheers!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'd say Silence is abandoned, it hasn't been updated in 4 years.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Looks like QKSMS is not maintained for ~2 years

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

About that, see comment by @[email protected] in this thread. Apparently only the GPlay version is unmaintained.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I used to use QKSMS, the only update that has been pushed in the last two years was a very small change in January '23 that corrected an error handling of question marks and fixing a start up crash. It is functionally unmaintained at this point.

The developer has ghosted the project in past years as well, dropped out for over a year but eventually did come back. It's never been this long of an absence though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank you for the heads-up. I've installed it and for now it's working OK. To be honest I don't mind that's unmaintained, if it works (I still use a 10-year old timer app that is just perfect for me, never found the like again).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know what you mean. I've been using a reminder app called "recurrence" that is abandoned and it looks like its from the android 7 days. When you find something that fits the need just right it takes more than lack of updates to prompt a move to something else. Aside from if there are security issues that aren't getting patched.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

You won't be able to use RCS without Google messages

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