Handcent SMS App

[Hadron]

I haven't heard anyone mention Handcent for years. I'm sure there was some reason why people here moved away from it (possibly the privacy issues you mention were found so long ago that I'd forgotten, or maybe it just went through a buggy/bloated/junky phase as many apps do), but I was slightly surprised to discover that it's still going.

 

[nickdalzell]

Too bad the older UI is long gone, and sideloading an older version is met with the 'SMS won't send' bug where it just goes into the ether, but you can read incoming SMS fine.

The 'modern' version I only tried when I was toying with a Motorola G Stylus and it was failing with the Google app, and Handcent was the only one that would play ball. Unfortunately it has fallen victim to the flat UI trend, and has no theme support. I swear the older ones had many themes to choose from?

 

[Hadron]

The original Handcent did indeed have a lot of themes, though as is usual I found most of them garish, distracting and/or ugly so stuck to something quite basic.

But there have been a number of changes to how SMS apps interact, including the whole business of having to assign the app as default before it can work, so I'm not surprised if an old version does not work any more.

 

[nickdalzell]

Even when set as default it doesn't work. It can read incoming fine, but sending doesn't even produce an error, the message just vanishes once the keyboard dismisses itself.

Same thing happens to a lot of my favorite Android 2.3 apps where I had to suck it up buttercup and use the Samsung Messages app which at least has some theme capability (but not a way to make the glossier bubbles show anymore)

The only one immune to it was Go SMS Pro, but I ain't paying a monthly subscription just to have a skeuomorphic interface. Plus aren't the devs behind Go apps such as Go Launcher among others behind similar scams as Cheetah Mobile were?