Verizon is stopping support for message+ and says to just use Google messenger. Fuck that I hate Google, can anyone suggest an app I can use to just text people and send pictures that works on and offline?
For a simple replacement for a sms messaging app, there is https://f-droid.org/packages/org.fossify.messages/
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SMS alternative - qksms Message alternative - SimpleX
QKSms
Offline?
Sorry to say, but you’re gonna need to be online to send anything.
Say hello to my Friend Briar:
Signal appears to be one of the best. Not a user. Simply a person paying attention to tech, privacy, etc. podcasts and the like.
May I ask why you don’t use it?
If we’re defining “text” as “SMS, MMS or RCS”, Signal doesn’t do that anymore. You can only send messages to other signal users. Signal is a great app but you won’t be able to reach people with it unless you talk them into using it.
There are some FOSS SMS clients tho. I used to use Simple SMS, but there were no updates for 12 months.
Maybe try Deku SMS: https://github.com/deku-messaging/Deku-SMS-Android
It seems to have at least some traction for what it’s worth.
It depends on what exactly you’re looking for in a messenger. If you are able to get people onto a specific platform, go with something like Signal, that’s your best case scenario.
If you’re unable to do that though, and need SMS/MMS, you have options. QUIK is an app I highly recommend for SMS and MMS. The big downside, however, is that RCS is seemingly exclusive to Google Messenger on Android. If you want to use RCS, you’re kind of stuck unfortunately.
To minimize needing to use it, you could buy an old iPhone, jailbreak it, and try and set up Beeper Mini on an android device. That’s what I do at least, which helps quite a bit. It’s finicky and just not perfect, but it’s better than just using SMS/MMS.
Hopefully this comment covers your use case and you’re able to get some useful info out of it.
I don’t think any of the recommendations here are even close to what OP is asking for… QUIK from my understanding is just a replacement SMS app, it does not “sync messages to other devices” or allow you to send SMS messages via your phone from other devices, nor does it have a desktop/web version, all of which is what Message+ does. Pretty sure this requires a self-hosted server to do (or a third-party proprietary service like MightyText).
SmsMatrix, KDEConnect/GSConnect, Nextcloud Talk are some examples that will do this.
Check out QKSMS
QUIK is a more up-to-date version of QKSMS. Not the most important thing ever, since SMS/MMS are inherently insecure, but it’s just good to always make sure you have up-to-date versions of things.
For SMS/MMS, I find Right Messages to be quite good. For RCS, I don’t think there are any alternatives. And surely you know about the variety of messengers (Matrix, Signal, …).
I don’t text people because texting is not secure. I use the default AOSP app that comes with lineage OS to receive text message codes like those six digit codes but otherwise I only use messengers such as signal
Edit: To stop anybody from saying it, yes, I’m quite aware that getting OTP codes via SMS is not secure, and I do not use it for any account that will let me turn it off entirely. But some, unfortunately, will not. And so I do not trust those accounts very much.
