Does anyone know of an open-source alternative to Google’s “Messages” app, which takes care of SMS/text messages on my phone?
I was looking for open-source alternatives on PlayStore and F-Droid but can’t really find anything – most apps seem to target some extra purpose than simply handling SMSs.
(Edit: I’d like to stay away from the “Simple Mobile Tools” line because I don’t know if it’s open source, and I don’t like the way they promoted some apps – forcing users to update to pro and similar.)
Cheers!
??? You have a couple on F-Droid that does what it’s supposed to. But in general, should avoid using SMS if you are intending to be privy.
signal is my favorite sms app
but for one that isn’t a joke, qksms is solid
Dump SMS and switch to an app like Signal. Signal offers end to end encryption and features like disappearing messages. As easy to use as any SMS app.
Looks like QKSMS is not maintained for ~2 years
About that, see comment by @Anafabula@discuss.tchncs.de in this thread. Apparently only the GPlay version is unmaintained.
I used to use QKSMS, the only update that has been pushed in the last two years was a very small change in January '23 that corrected an error handling of question marks and fixing a start up crash. It is functionally unmaintained at this point.
The developer has ghosted the project in past years as well, dropped out for over a year but eventually did come back. It’s never been this long of an absence though.
Thank you for the heads-up. I’ve installed it and for now it’s working OK. To be honest I don’t mind that’s unmaintained, if it works (I still use a 10-year old timer app that is just perfect for me, never found the like again).
Hmm, latest commit in it’s github repository is from 2021