Reviews for Handcent Next SMS messenger

I've sent various debug reports and engaged in the back and forth via email about group chats and there was a glimmer of hope when I saw a recent update. well... no. the issue persists. the symptom: group chats (especially heavy traffic ones) would result in messages simply not downloading. couldn't even trigger a manual download of the message. that progress to an even worse case where zero group chats were coming in. single message worked just fine. the remedy? switching over to another app

UPDATE: I paid for the Ad removal and STILL get Ads. The Ads stopped for just a little while. My messages are disappearing and not sending after writing them, I'm NOT receiving messages from people who have been texting me. I'm VERY frustrated and considering going back to my old texting app that is FREE. I love the personalized skins for my contacts and feel there is more security with this app but now I'm starting to wonder about that! MUCH better than invasive google messages!!! Love it!

This is a great app. I like how you can customize the background and fonts for individual contacts. Also one that you can have a different color LED notification settings per contact. 5/15/25 Update : Still using this app because it's great! One thing I would like to see is a way to dim/lighten the personal background so it is easier to read the texts.

I recently had a problem with Sending my texts, and having them Sent to/Delivered/Received by the intended recipient. I contacted the Handcent Support Team, and they were very quick to respond to my complaint, and kept pursuing it until they fixed the problem. They suggested I install the latest Version 11.5.3, and that seemed to have solved the problem, and will hopefully prevent future problems. They were very responsive and courteous to me, as I'm older and not that tech savvy.

I am a paid user and IT professional. Been using this app for years and it's been great. All of a sudden, something has gone very wrong. They forced a "reorganization" of some sort. now there are messages missing, messages in the wrong folders, etc., it's a mess. Tech support has been no help. really frustrating.

Great app for me. I have set up several groups and mark them as fav so they stay at the top which is a nice feature. One improvement i would make is when I am looking to text a new person in my contacts, it brings up their email address as well as their phone.....I only need their phone number for texting; not sure why I have to sift through email addresses. But overall, a great app!

lots of glitches. I got this app because group chats didn't work well. Group chat works fine. Here's the problems. the layout is confusing. I wish the app just used gallery but it uses file explorer which is confusing. It only lets you send 5 second videos without paying to upgrade. I have a massive glitch where I am just not receiving messages when they are sent. Which leads me to think that my messages are not sending when they should.

This is, by far, the best SMS app out there. So customizable AND it lets me schedule delivery! Love it!!! UPDATE: My texts were coming back with the message "message blocking is active", I immediately emailed Handecent and told them what was happening before I realized that it was because I unknowingly was past due on my phone bill which was the reason for my problem. Handecent had immediately replied to my email offering solutions. if I could give them 10 stars I would!

Good app, and it does support attaching more than one file (such as two or more pics, gifs, audio, stickers, etc, or a combination thereof) at the text entry input box when composing a message. My previous posted comments suggested this wasn't possible, but I was incorrect. The app is still 5 stars, and customer support is timely & helpful.

I've used Handcent for years without problems, and it's quite good... there's actually TOO many options, which is great for customisers like myself. But I can't give the app five stars as the company choose to use AI in its product. You can turn it off, which I had to Email the staff to do, but it shouldn't be integrated in the first place. AI is awful, and companies jumping on the bandwagon to ram a lake-boiling lie machine onto their customers is vile.

Best text app out there! Update 8/22/25 App has progressively become unstable and unbearable. The MMS messages just spin and never send or download, they ask for $$ to send larger videos, some messages NEVER even show up..... the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, it's time to move on to something more reliable.

It's great. It's affordable in today's economy, and it works. The only thing it lacks is timed messages you can squedule to go out when u know people are not asleep, if you think of something they need to know as soon as they wake up and u don't want to forget to say later. Memory issues and different sleep squedules are common. This is why I keep asking for this feature. Otherwise sms is gr8.

I have used this app on many phones over the past decade or so, but unfortunately I think I'm going to have to go to the Android stock app. I'm in quite a few group chats and as of last weekend (8/2/25) Google's RCS system seems to be causing me to miss messages, and about half of the recipients can't see my messages when I send them. It really sucks as I love Next SMS, but my groups are important (family/work) and I simply cannot miss those messages. EDIT: Diabled RCS, still having issues

RE: I already tried that. Doesn't work. Used this app for a decade as a gold member. And they always addressed all issues in the past . Was the best by far sms app in the market. The last 2 months have been a nightmare! Was no longer receiving all group messages from the group. Some were not receiving my text as well. Followed all advise from support including disabling rcs on Google stock app etc. Still didn't work. Group messages come in as downloading status but never completed.

All that's keeping me from giving five stars is the lack of a quick way to mute a conversation (eg, have the option "Mute Conversation" when you hit the three dots) so I can do that easily during business meetings or elsewhere when I don't want to be disturbed by an active conversation. It can be done, but it must be searched for, which isn't desirable under the circumstances when I want to mute them.

I'm having some major issues. The first issue is when someone tries to send me a photo or image text they come to me showing "download" but they never fully download so that I can see the image. This has been going on for days. I just did the app update thinking that would help, but it didn't. I also called my provider and they walked me through some tech support things such as system updates and tried to do everything they could, but nothing fixed the issue. This happens when I send photos too

I really like this text app, but I have had a few issues with using the search feature to find someone's name so I can text them, especially if their name is way down in the order of my recent texts. It'll put me onto a completely different page. Also, choosing a background theme for the page is hard to accomplish without doing all kinds of workarounds to get an image on the screen. Otherwise, the app performs the basic tasks I require it to do... send and receive texts.

What happened??? I've been using this app a long time and people have been telling me they've sent messages that I dont get. The problem is with group messages. I had to switch to another messaging app. and when I did, 30+ group messages poured in that I've missed from the past month. Too bad. I really liked alot of the features of this app ... especially being able to send auto replies to people when I'm driving. That's a feature I can't find in other apps. The app. is up to date.

9/21/25 I am having trouble sending pictures and when I get one to send the receiver receives this message. "File can be open Natively on next sms instead of browser . . . etc." please advise. thank you. I love this app! There isn't anything you can't do in a text messaging app. The only criticism I have is that the spelling feature does not work at times. Other than that, it is fantastic!

I really like the app as a replacement for Verizon Messages+ which was recently shut down. I used Handcent about 15 years ago when it first came out and was happy to see it's still around and has a lot of the same functionality. The options are vast and can be a little confusing so I suggest you take time looking at all of the settings to really take advantage of all the options like group messages, scheduled messages, themes, AI chat, message templates, etc.