How can I make my Galaxy Note 3 Messaging app not lag?

[ejacks10s]

I have a Galaxy Note 3 and have loved it up until about 2 weeks ago (had it about a year). I've started having trouble sending messages...it takes FOREVER to send them...and sometimes won't. I've gone in and deleted a lot of them, thinking that was what was slowing it down. Deleting the texts is taking forever too and sometimes it causes the phone to freeze up with the message "Messaging Not Responding" and closes. When I go back into Messages, there's just a black screen and I have to reboot the phone. Has anybody else had this problem and if so, do you know of any fix? I appreciate your help.

 

[Almeuit]

Download a 3rd party app to delete the mass amount of messages. The stock Samsung app can't handle to much from what I have noticed ... my GF had this issue. I downloaded the 3rd party app I use (ChompSMS) and deleted her mass amount of messages which fixed her stock app. I would suggest trying this as well.

Please Note - It can still take awhile to delete even with ChompSMS but it won't do the freeze / crash thing the stock one does when trying to delete mass amounts. I gave her phone about 5-10 minutes per "conversation" with a person to delete (yes there were that many lol).