Show HN: QKSMS, an SMS replacement app for Android | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: QKSMS, an SMS replacement app for Android

play.google.com

46 pointsmoezb18 comments

Here is my biggest problem with Hangouts (and the previous Android texting apps I've used):

They seem to work pretty well most of the time. But occasionally, especially with low signal, they hit an annoying exception condition where a message will fail to be sent.

When this happens, it is never clear to me whether the message actually failed to be sent, or whether the receipt was not acknowledged. I know that sometimes it's the former, and sometimes it's the latter (leading to the sending of duplicate messages).

This is probably an artifact of the carrier that the app can do nothing about. True?

I think false.

I have the same frustrations. When I had Google Voice without Hangouts, it was a buzz after I texted and a clear message that the 'message failed to be sent...retrying'. I was able to use the long press to resend immediately, view the message details or cancel the message. I really enjoyed the feedback I got with them.

I've now upgraded to Hangouts and I can't tell in low-connectivity settings whether I need to intervene or not. I'd prefer some easy feedback messages which I can identify action on. I expect network failure...but I'm honestly worried when I see Hangouts/Google Voice/phone failure.

Feel free to ask any questions here!

The app has been in testing for a few months now, and in that time it accumulated over 20k members in the G+ tester community. Today, it's finally being released for the masses :)

Side note, I'm publishing an update in a couple hours to fix some of the crashes that have been showing up in this update

Nicely done - for a moment I thought this app was officially from Google because of the circle icon. :-)

I think the screenshots tell most of the story here. It looks pretty incredible and I am willing to try it out.

Though my biggest question is how similar this thing is to another one called Textra. Can you talk a little bit about what's going on with both of these apps and why they look identical? Plus Textra already has 1-5 million installs.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.textra&hl=...

Beta tester from the start here. QKSMS looked the way it does from the start. Two months into QKSMS development Textra released that update. They're both following material design guidelines, but QKSMS definitely had it first.

What value does QKSMS add that Hangouts does not?

"It looks better" is a very valid answer, but honestly after reading the Google Play page, I'm still not sure. From reading the description in the Play Store, here's where I believe QKSMS differs from Hangouts:

* More visual customization

* Offers a mysterious QKReply feature (screenshot seems to suggest this is a special dialog for replying to incoming messages)

* MMS may sometimes be more difficult to set up

Any plans for an option to switch off all those avatars?

Looks great, but the permissions seem to be a bit heavy-handed. Why does it require access to Wi-Fi and have the ability to add/remove device accounts, for example?

Any plans for Pushbullet integration? EvolveSMS is pretty fragile but the only one that supports it at the moment.

https://www.pushbullet.com/

http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/06/10/pushbullet-and-evolv...

What makes this different from Textra? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.textra

I like search feature in your app (hangout app doesn't have it)...perhaps make it responsive by searching on the fly as user enters a search term... And may be sort messages by created time in desc order

(I work on QKSMS)

Thanks for the feedback :) we have tons of ideas for making search better too---keep an eye out for updates in the coming weeks!

Wow, the app is beautiful. However, personally, the number one negative experience I've dealt with using my Note 2 was group messaging. It's always fragmented, especially photos. Getting photos in group chat not connected to wifi is always hit or miss. Did you do anything with group chat to improve this problem?

Looks nice so far. Good look, but seems like it already has good traction!

This is so awesome!

It looks neat, I guess, but it's only really useful for those who have a mobile plan with unlimited data and limited texting. I'm not certain, but I suspect that this is a small minority of the mobile market.

It's actually an SMS *client replacement. It doesn't use mobile data, it uses real SMS and MMS!

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