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Whats all the excitement around handcent?

M

mattwill

Member
I dont get it, what am i missing that the masses seem to know? I see it allows you to change the colors and puts them in little bubbles....how cute, but they actually reduce the number of viewable messages on the screen.

It is this customization feature that people like most? How else is it better than the stock messaging app?

Inquiring minds want to know...
 
to me, all the other messaging apps do not look nice, but Handcent looks cool. plus you can customize a lot of stuff, which i like. chompSMS is not the bad either.
 
bman12479 said:
With the stock message app when the threads would get filled with a lot of messages the thread would take forever to open with handcent there never is a lag no matter how many messages are in the thread
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Ahh...this i did notice. I occasionally have to delete the thread.
 
For me it's 3 things:

1. As stated above, the stock app gets a ton of lag to open a message thread when there is a lot of messages in it.

2. Since Froyo, the stock app only lets you to send a mass text to a maximum of 10 people. This does not work as I manage a softball team and I need to send out a mass text to over 15 people on a weekly basis.

3. The customization. I love a lot of the customization features.
 
Like stated above, stock is a lot slower when dealing with a lot of messages. The pop-up is always very useful. Its good to get a text, and reply right away.

You can also set individual message ringtones for different people, customize each person's conversation settings (background, colors, etc).
For me, that customization is awesome. Having different backgrounds for different people makes it more fun. It's also good to know who the message is from as soon as I get it just by the notification sound.
 
to me it's the customization and the popup quick replies. i love being able to reply back without having to unlock the phone and then open up the app and close it again
 
WizeGuyDezignz said:
2. Since Froyo, the stock app only lets you to send a mass text to a maximum of 10 people. This does not work as I manage a softball team and I need to send out a mass text to over 15 people on a weekly basis.
Click to expand...

Check out GroupME. It's great for stuff like this. GroupMe

Edit: I actually also just switched back to the stock messaging app. Handcent always has trouble with MMS for me and has trouble receiving vCards
 
yeah handcent is much better than stock..howevrr, its ruined in froyo wjth plenty of text lag. ugh. hope they fix.
 
I use chompSMS the donate version. It's worth the $4. You can customize the style of the chat bubbles and conversation thread list. What I really like is the option that wakes the screen (not unlock just wake) when you receive a message. I haven't tried using the widget, but it looks pretty decent. Try the free version, then donate. Hands down the best messaging app.
 
For me:
- You can set the keyboard's return key to make it send a message (i.e. when you're in landscape mode and the keyboard takes up the entire fricking screen, but HTC decided that, even with 3 sq. miles of real estate to put the keyboard, they'll remove the Send key)
- You can have it split texts to external (non VZ) carriers at words rather than directly at 160 char

BUT... it has a bug when sending MMS to my iPhone friends on AT&T that I can only seem to get around by sending the picture with the stock app...

Doc
 
Along with the other opinions here, I use handcent for the notification customizations. My phone is on vibrate most of the time and with the stock app, the notification is only 2 little vibrations. Handcent, however, has the ability to change the vibrate pattern for notifications, ie default, normal, long, mult short, mult long and completely custom. This tips the scales in my opinion.
 
The biggest reason I went with handcent is because when i was talking on the phone and someone would text me, my phone would vibrate twice to notify me. There was no option in the stock sms program to ignore vibrates while on the phone. Handcent does have this option and that's why I took it. Every time it would notify me while on the phone, the person I was talking to is like WTF IS THAT NOISE!?!

You don't have to use bubble conversations. I still keep my Handcent using the typical layout.
 
I love handcent for the customizations.

You can set different tones per contact, different icons, fonts, etc. You can even set it to not get any notification from a specific contact, for those of you who may not want a certain someone to know you've received a message from that other someone.
 
also the stock messenger sends pics as a slideshow for some, really annoying, reason. Handcent doesnt do this. Since froyo I have been running into to some bugs though. Seems like now, handcent has some bugs when using it thru another app like Picsay or AppSharing.
 
JUst downloaded handcent. HOw do I make it primary so I don't get duplicates with the stock app?
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Just turn off notifications from the original. Handcent doesn't replace the stock sms as far as I know.
 
Evil Sports said:
Do you use our softball The Evil Ball or Bat??
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I actually don't, but I've seen you in the Softball Fans forums, lol! I play in a men's league on Monday nights and use a Miken Freak Plus. On Wednesday nights I play in a work coed league and I can't use my Miken as it's an ASA league. So I just use whatever people on my team have, usually a Synergy.

What do you recommend?
 
gparadox said:
Like stated above, stock is a lot slower when dealing with a lot of messages. The pop-up is always very useful. Its good to get a text, and reply right away.

You can also set individual message ringtones for different people, customize each person's conversation settings (background, colors, etc).
For me, that customization is awesome. Having different backgrounds for different people makes it more fun. It's also good to know who the message is from as soon as I get it just by the notification sound.
Click to expand...
Yup this is why i like it.....

wow plenty of responses in here, did this help the op?
 
Chomp for me. I like the pop up reply options and that it pops up no matter what. Speed. Customization. No MMS problems.
 
coco savage said:
Yup this is why i like it.....

wow plenty of responses in here, did this help the op?
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Heck yeah...
I like the fact i can tun off vibrate when i am on the phone (i had another post about that) and i really like the mention it does not create a slideshow with pics. I hate that part of the stock app.

Mention of faster speed is good too, but i guess the froyo update is in the works. I might give it another chance. I also would like to try chomp now as well. Thanks for the replies.
 
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