Handcent Next SMS messenger

Handcent

Contains adsIn-app purchases

About this app

A great replacement android text messaging app for stock SMS text messenger.
It's secure with upmost privacy protection.
Best SMS app with ultimate message customization
Encrypted chat - Reliable guard to keep texts safe
Texting from any system/device with 'Anywhere'
Cloud backup - never worry about long texts again
Built-in chatGPT support
Lots of Stickers, emojis, and gifs to choose from
Wear OS device support(Dependent on phone app)
Group or mass text to send a message to multiple recipients
Support for foldables, like Samsung fold
Support for most android version (4.4 to 13) and Lineage OS 19
Dual SIM support

Security

For every update, it'll be scanned with *VirualTotal* 60+ mainstream anti-virus engines to make sure it's safe. Protecting data privacy is our top priority.
Conversations now can be encrypted as per your need

Messenger Customization

The theme store offers over 200 themes to choose from with new ones updated weekly.
You can personalize text messages, fonts, stickers, colors, ringtones, LED colors, vibration patterns, etc.

Handcent Anywhere - best private texting on computer and tablet.

Cross-platform texting on all systems and devices, which is one and only on the market. Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, android, computers, tablets, and smartwatches all have their own separate apps. You can send texts anywhere you are without the phone.
Go to aw.handcent.com and start chatting & messaging. Group text is also supported

Wear OS

Receive and reply messages on all android-based smartwatches, along with the features like voice to text, etc.
Support Wear OS , Galaxy Watch series with Tizen and both square and round watches

Need to work with the phone app, doesn't work as a standalone app

MMS

MMS is fast and stable, can receive all kinds of MMS messages and also share full-size multimedia with MMS plus.
Share multimedia messages with your friends. MMS plus can act as a multimedia android text messaging downloader, save multimedia files on our private cloud server.

Pop up text

Quick reply text messages within a pop up window.

Private Box

An encrypted text message box that can only be opened by unique passcode. All texts in private box can only be viewed by yourself. Best way to protect you while messaging & texting.

SMS Backup

Never worry about losing your texts or messages with our backup service. Restore all your private messages (SMS / MMS) and settings when you switch to a new phone or reset your phone.

Search

You can search text messages by time, message type and etc.
All SMS messages with text are searchable

SMS Blocker/Blacklisting

Block all unwanted or spam SMS & MMS messages in our private android text messaging app.

Spam filter

Automatically filter and block potential spam messages

Scheduled Task

Schedule texts & messages to be sent at a given time.

Emoji

You will love animated emojis that also comply with the newest emoji standard.

Stickers

Now integrated with Giphy. You can send messages with stickers by using quick search. Handcent is the best sms messenger with stickers.

Drive mode

To read texts or mute during drive to ensure driving safety with Android Auto support

Text to Speech

Read texts out loud with support for repeated reminder

Sticky on top

Handcent Next SMS messenger pins your private contacts on top based on your SMS & MMS needs.

Other messages improvements.
Built-in ChatGPT to let you talk to AI as a conversation thread
Group Messaging Chat: Create a group with friends/contacts, all contacts will receive the message while texting. Send mass text messages with stickers to all members of the group. You will love the simple group and mass SMS & MMS messaging.

Other free features: Bulk Mass SMS & MMS, group text, text snippets and etc. to improve your productivity

Ratings and reviews

2018 - I've been using this app for a few years and it's great. Update - It's 2024 and this is still my favorite text app. Lots of privacy features. And its constantly being updated. One critique is fix the issue with exchanging media with iPhone users. When I get a pic from an iPhone user the quality is horrible. If I'm doing something wrong or there is a setting I need to adjust please let me know. Other than that, great app. I love it.

REALLY needs the option to have multiple colors for incoming texts in groups. Everyone having the same color is entirely too confusing in larger groups. You'd think with as much customization that you offer this would already be an option. I'll keep the app for a bit to see if it happens because other apps are limited with customization capabilities overall. But, this is pretty much a deal breaker.

I have used this app for years and it never disappoints. It makes messaging easy and more interesting being able to customize everything from fonts to font colors to screens, etc. Updating to a new phone was a breeze after doing a backup of all my messages and settings and restoring to the new phone. Feature rich is an understatement. Great customer support! I submitted a feature request and they had it added it in a few days. IMPRESSIVE!

What's new

Updated the icon in the splash screen
Updated the string in the guide screen