Third party messaging apps

By Dennis Long, 25 July, 2019

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

What are good replacement text messaging apps?

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Comments

By Dennis Long on Friday, July 26, 2019 - 20:37

In reply to by X2

No others don't need the app. Although why you wouldn't have it is beyond me. Where do you go to customize it?

By Dawn 👩🏻‍🦯 on Friday, July 26, 2019 - 20:37

Hi! I'd check out messenger. That's what I use for my family/friends. Plus, if they have Facebook accounts already, that's a bonus. Although I don't think you need a Facebook account to uq it.
You can make video/audio calls on there too & send audio messages. I think you can use it with your phone number. That's all I use for my family/friends, mainly because pretty much all of them have an Facebook account. And also, as I'm sure is the case for many people out there, my family/friends have a mixed bag of Os.'s some use Apple & some use Android. Hope this helps!

By Trenton Matthews on Friday, July 26, 2019 - 20:37

Other apps to consider include:

1. Telegram Messenger
2. Viber Messenger

By Remy on Friday, July 26, 2019 - 20:37

There's also Skype, Google Hangouts, Whatsapp and Lime. All of them work just fine on IOS.

By X2 on Friday, July 26, 2019 - 20:37

Hi, I meant customize as in privacy and it notifications. To customize the privacy, go to the settings of the app and scroll down to privacy. For example, you can set face ID, touch ID, or passcode whenever you open the app. And also in a conversation, you can turn on disappearing messages, which basically means when someone reads the message, it disappears, sort of like snapchat, in terms of messages. Notification sounds, you can set as the text tones/ringtones that come with the iPhone. To do that go to settings and scroll down to notifications, then look for notification sound. You can also set a dark mode in the app, voiceover reads it as dark theme, it’s a button you can toggle. You can also toggle read receipts/typing indicators. The app also has a feature where notifications won’t appear in your notification center, it’s called screen security, if you toggle that on, it will hide the notifications from your notification center. Basically this app is aimed for private messages. All the privacy features that you can customize can be found in the settings of the app and under privacy. I don’t like messenger because Facebook stores your messages and they can see the conversation between you and another person. This might not be a big deal for you or for anyone else, but for me, I like my privacy.

By Dennis Long on Friday, July 26, 2019 - 20:37

Hi, are the settings in the app it self or do I go to settings on the phone and look for signal there?

By X2 on Friday, July 26, 2019 - 20:37

hi, no, the settings within the app. Open the signal app and vo should automatically place you on the settings button. If not, you can find it at the top left corner of the app. Let me know if you need anymore help.

By Dennis Long on Friday, July 26, 2019 - 20:37

Hi, a few more questions. 1 will it play a notification sound on a call? 2 how do I get it to see more than the few notification tones the app has built in?

By X2 on Friday, July 26, 2019 - 20:37

Hi, I haven’t used the calling feature as I only use the app mostly for texting. As for notification sounds, i’m afraid that’s all it has, I could’ve swore I thought it had more, sorry. But since those are the default text tones for iPhones, that’s why it has a super short list. Unless you purchase a text tone from the iTunes Store , It might show up but I’m not too sure. And if you don’t want the notifications going off while you’re on a call, just go to the settings in the app and go to notifications and turn off “Play while app is open”.
Hth