What does the text message app look like on Android?

[MannyZ28]

This may sound like a weird question, but I am a stickler for details. One thing I like about the SMS app on the Pre is that it shows the other persons ID pic next to every message they write you, do we get that same type of luxury on Android?

Yeah, I am total Android virgin. I am trying to find some sort of walk through video so I can see what I can expect.

 

[Complex Pants]

There are multiple SMS/MMS apps you can get for Android. I assume you want to see what the stock app in sense UI looks like.

Here is handcent: Handcent SMS - Android app on AppBrain

 

[premed]

I am learning about Android. What are some Android type phones

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

You have Vanilla, which is what the Moto Droid and Samsung Moment run (basic), and the N1 runs a variation as well (not too different from Droid now).
MotoBlur which is a User Interface dedicated to social media that go on the Moto Backflip and Devour
Sense User Interface which is also centered around media but less cheesy and more professional looking which run on the HTC Hero, Droid Eris, Evo, Desire, Droid Incredible...
The Dell Aero and LG LePhone have their own interfaces which I don't know too much about.

 

[Bigchris]

This may sound like a weird question, but I am a stickler for details. One thing I like about the SMS app on the Pre is that it shows the other persons ID pic next to every message they write you, do we get that same type of luxury on Android?

Yeah, I am total Android virgin. I am trying to find some sort of walk through video so I can see what I can expect.

I'm glad you asked, I was curious about this myself, and I like the SMS app on the Pre as well, hoping it will be similar.

 

[MannyZ28]

Yep, I am most interested in what the stock one looks like.

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

Here is the stock app

 

[MannyZ28]

Ahh...very nice, space holders for faces!

Thank you fine sir!

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

no prob, it automatically puts facebook in there, but you can go into people (app for contacts) and swap out the pictures for contacts

 

[Bigchris]

Here is the stock app

Thanks, that works for me.

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

Yeah, its nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.
They finally added resize pics to it. If you were going to picture message on a Hero, you needed Handcent to resize the pics automatically since Sprint has a 1MB limite for MMS and 5MP pics are over 1MB. This has been fixed in 2.1 and it resizes the pics for MMS messages for you.

 

[Complex Pants]

that is good to hear. Are any of the SMS/MMS clients threaded like in WebOS/iPhone? Handcent looked like it was.

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

the two best are handcent and chompsms

They are similar, Handcent offers more features. You can customize it to white or black theme, popup messaging, have Sense, Iphone, and Android messaging styles.
Here's what mine looks like, but there are many other variations:



You can change text and box colors, have white, black or insert a picture as the background individualized per contact. Its pretty neat. The popup feature is my favorite, don't even need to load the app to submit a reply and can browse through multiple new messages in the popup menu.

 

[MannyZ28]

Hmm, I wonder how these aftermarket messaging apps interact with the rest of the OS? After watching one too many Incredible reviews, I have learned that the contact and messaging apps seem very intermingled, since you can see your past messages, phone history, shared pics, etc. of a person through the contacts app.

This is the exciting part of switching operating systems....how will what I am used work on the OS I am switching to. Went through it when learning WinMo, then going to webOS, and now to Android. My brother calls me crazy for trying out all those other OS's instead of going to the only (in his opinion) decent one.....you can guess what he likes, and no, it doesn't start with Black and ends in Berry, but it's another fruity company! lol

 

[gabbott]

So I'll throw in my observations from someone coming from a Pre and now using a moment running 2.1. It is vanilla android and I havent used any of the third party messaging apps just the stock messaging app. It isnt too bad. When you get a text you see a notification in the top bar (similar to what you see at the bottom of the pre) and when the message first comes in it scrolls the actual messages accross the top bar and then left with a notification icon. It isnt as elegent as webos as you cant just hit the notification to bring up the messaging app, for manageing notifications, you have to swipe down. But once you open the messaging app the notification goes away. Now the third party apps as I understand it can replace the standard messaging app as they have their own notifications (you can then just turn off notifications for the stock app if you run one of these). I've never run a third party messaging app but that is how I understand it to work.

One thing I really like on the moment compared to the pre is the messaging app comes up pretty much instantaneous, no lag.

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

Hmm, I wonder how these aftermarket messaging apps interact with the rest of the OS? After watching one too many Incredible reviews, I have learned that the contact and messaging apps seem very intermingled, since you can see your past messages, phone history, shared pics, etc. of a person through the contacts app.

This is the exciting part of switching operating systems....how will what I am used work on the OS I am switching to. Went through it when learning WinMo, then going to webOS, and now to Android. My brother calls me crazy for trying out all those other OS's instead of going to the only (in his opinion) decent one.....you can guess what he likes, and no, it doesn't start with Black and ends in Berry, but it's another fruity company! lol

Correct, you can't get rid of the stock app if you are going to use a 3rd party app. It requires a foundation in order to work. That is why both my screen shots are of the same messages.