[mdr25]

Ugh, I hate that SMS is conflated with Hangouts as it is. It causes notifications for work-related chat to get mixed in with notifications for personal text messages on my phone. Can anyone suggest alternative SMS clients for Android?

[berberous]

TextSecure! Nobody I know uses it, so the encryption/privacy features are basically useless, but it's a fast, well-designed, pretty app regardless. It also has a feature I love: persistent notifications for unread texts.

[tbh]

Seconding this, switched to TextSecure when they combined SMS and Hangouts. It is an excellent SMS app replacement. The crypto doesn't get in your way, even when almost none of your contacts also use it.

[rahimnathwani]

Pinger offers free texts, but it won't work with your Google Voice number: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pinger.tex...

IIRC Google Voice is due to remove API access for third-party apps.

[aestra]

I love Handset SMS! I never use anything else once I found it! You can customize the alerts you get, icon/vibrate pattern/sound and other features as well.

[matthewn]

TextSecure is a fantastic, free replacement for the built-in SMS app on Android, even if you don't use any of its encryption features.

[tbh]

Agreed! I'm recommending it to anyone uncomfortable with the SMS/Hangouts merge.

[vinw]

I like the standard AOSP Messaging app, which someone has bundled up here for people whose Android doesn't come with it installed.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fr.slvn.mms

[Lewisham]

I'm quite a fan of Hello, but you need to explicitly turn off a "feature" that tells people you message you send it with Hello. I have no idea why they don't just charge a dollar for it.

[hert]

My favorite is Textra. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.textra

[tomkarlo]

I've been using "Hello" and it's quite nice as a basic / super-simple SMS app. Very minimalist, though.

[Fishkins]

I used to use ChompSMS and liked it.