I am hoping to find a SMS messaging app to replace the one that comes with the iPhone.
While the default one works, it has gotten really bloated with the ability to send video, tie into other apps, etc.
This results in me having to finger dance all over the screen when looking for last message, the send button, etc. Maybe there are shortcuts I am not aware of to make this more efficient, but as it stands, it is needlessly inefficient for such simple tasks.
I just want something simple, as 99 percent of the time, I just need to send a text message to a contact, and read their response, nothing fancier than that. I've tried doing a search here on AppleVis for better apps or better ways to use the default one, but I'm not seeing anything.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
By Blind Adrenaline, 27 November, 2019
Forum
iOS and iPadOS
Comments
Try this
If you haven't already, tell it to hide the apps. Next to the text field, there is a button that normally says "apps visible." Double tap it and hide the apps. That will clear up a bit of the clutter.
google voice
lotta blind folks I know like google voice
Excellent tip
Ok cool, I did that and that definitely helps, thanks much for the suggestion.
Glad it helped
I had the same issues you were having in that it was becoming too much of a pain to work with the included text messaging app. This simplified my life a whole lot, mostly because I don't understand what I'm supposed to do with all of those other apps.
Google Voice
Yah, I looked at Google voice a while back, but from what I could gather, it looked like you assigned another phone number to use it.
I just want to be able to send and receive text messages from my phone without jumping through extra hoops.
Being able to hide all the apps might have done the trick though. Embarrassed I hadn't figured that out on my own, but , AppleVis to the rescue once again, which is why I am a monthly supporting member. Thanks yawl.
sounds good
I believe you can tie google voice to an existing number,
but the hide apps deal sounds easier.
We may need an alternative if apple keeps improving messages.
Quick reply
In addition to what people already mentioned with hiding apps, you can also very quickly reply to a message from a notification.
If a new message comes in and you get a notification, either on the lock screen or the notification center, swipe down until you get to the view option and double-tap. This should immediately take you to writing a new message with the keyboard open so you can start typing, above which you can see the conversation history. After you press send this window will just go away and you can go back to what you were doing before. This works not just with the text messages, you should be able to do this on notifications from most mesaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or Telegram. Sometimes you might get a few more options in addition to reply, but other than that it should work very similarly.
There is a button to do so.
There is a button to do so. After doing that the app will look clean again. I have done this and yeah it works.
Fb. messenger
I like messenger. You can text, & do video/audio chats. My family is apple users & we all use Fb. messenger. I'm not a fan of messages myself.