These are the best free texting apps and SMS apps for instant messaging and chatting.

There are often when texting is more convenient than a phone call. Texting and SMS are useful as this provides a quick way of communicating, and those you text can choose to reply straight away or when they get the right moment.

What are the best free messenger and SMS apps for android?

While most people use Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp for chatting, plain old texting is still an attractive option as some plans have unlimited free texts. The Google Play Store contains many instant messaging, text messages, and SMS apps with various features. Let’s check out our choice of android messaging apps for quick chatting or sending SMS.

Android Messages

Android Messages is the official texting app from google, which suppose to be the equivalent to apple’s iMessages. Up until recently, it was not considered the best messaging app, but that changes with the latest update. Android Messages now support RCS that takes text messaging to a completely new level.

It’s one of the best free texting apps to send and receive SMS messages quickly, supports MMS, group texting, and the ability to share photos and videos. You can capture pictures and videos and also send voice memos. It offers few theming options, backup features, emojis, stickers, a decent search function, PC version, and compatibility with android wear smartwatches. This is an intuitive and solid SMS app.

Facebook Messenger

Even though Facebook Messenger is a battery hog and often buggy, it’s the most popular messaging app on earth with text and video chat for Free. You can reach all your friends and family instantly in one place. The app lets you read or send messages without opening the Facebook app, record and send voice messages, make audio-only or video calls, and so much more. It has many fun features, such as in-call games, group video calls, changing your backgrounds while on call, share screen, and much more.

It constantly gets updated with new features. For example, you can turn on a message disappearing mode or apply themes for individual conversations.

chomp SMS

Chomp SMS app is an extremely comprehensive texting app. One of the features is a scheduled SMS sender so that you won’t miss those important occasions. Further features include emojis, privacy options, a passcode app lock, blacklisting with an SMS blocker, MMS, signatures, dual SIM support, group messaging, and more. If you’ve ever pressed the ‘send’ button and immediately regretted it, you’re covered with this app as you can stop a text while it’s in the sending process.

The app is also extremely customizable with hundreds of free themes and skins or the ability to create your own look and customizations for font types, notification icons, ringtones, screen colors, wallpapers, and more. Some of these features are offered through in-app purchases, although the app is free to download.

Pushbullet

Pushbullet lets send and receive SMS messages from your computer. That’s a real advantage when you working on a PC as you have a keyboard and do not need to reach the phone. You can also use it to reply to messages from other apps that include Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Kik, as well as sharing links and files with friends or between your devices.

All of your notifications, including phone calls, will show on your computer, and if you dismiss it on your computer, it will also disappear from your phone. Another feature is Pushbullet Channels so that you will receive notifications about the things you are most interested in.

QKSMS

QKSMS is one of the best free open source texting apps with a very appealing look based on Material Design. It avoids the clutter of some SMS apps and supports MMS, group messaging, night mode, delayed messaging, a message search facility, and Android Wear OS support. A further feature is QK reply for easy responses. QKSMS allows users to export and import messages backup conveniently. Besides, it has almost 200 themes available as well as customization options. In-app purchases are available, but all of the main features are free.

Snapchat

What if there was a messaging app that allowed you to snap a picture and temporarily share it with your loved ones instantly? That’s the beauty of Snapchat – a messaging app that lets users snap a photo or shoot a video, add a caption, and send it to a friend (or more) where they can see the Snap then watch it disappear. When you want to share your memories with those closest to you while having the peace of mind of knowing that those pictures/videos will disappear forever and only reside in the minds of those that were meant to see it, Snapchat is for you.

Snapchat shows how texting could be fun by bringing many fun lenses, photo effects, play games with friends, and much more. It’s even one of the best AR app that lets you add cool creatures in real-world scenarios.

Flychat

Flychat is a good texting app that combines all your messaging app into one unified view to read and reply. The app currently supports WhatsApp, Hangouts, Textra, Slack, Skype, LINE, Telegram, Twitter, Threema, Plus Messenger, and Facebook Messenger. It notifies you with a small bubble, so you don’t need to exit your current app, and clicking on the bubble will then display a full chat window. In-app purchases include customization options such as bubble size and custom colors and getting rid of adverts or supporting the app through donations.

Hangouts

This messaging app from google comes with the addition of emojis, doodles, and stickers as well as text. The clever aspect is the Smart Reply feature that learns over time and can suggest a reply to texts without you needing to enter a single word. A swipe can be used to change the text’s size, and the app also features Google Assistant. The video calling now has more options, including group calls and more. Messaging is secure thanks to end-to-end encryptions, and you can limit the time that messages are available or be more discreet with private notifications.

Textra SMS

This is a good-looking android messaging app with a nice clean feel. It’s compatible with Android Wear, Android Auto, and Pushbullet and is packed with features. Some of these are scheduled SMS & MMS, slide to delete, stop during send, quick snap camera, quick voice memos, message blocking, and much more.

It’s extremely customizable with over 180 themes and bubble and app icon colors, different bubble styles, GIFs, various text sizes, sounds, and privacy options per contact, and it also supports dual SIM devices.

YAATA

YAATA is one of the more recent texting apps on Google Play. It’s simple to use, quick, efficient and supports SMS and MMS with full multimedia support. It can be personalized to your heart’s content, and features include delivery reports, send delay, archiving group chat, and more. Several quick options include a choice of three widgets, the ability to pin contacts to the FAB tab, and quick compose (for three contacts). A long press on the attachment icon allows you to insert pictures speedily, and when creating a new message, your favorite contacts will be shown.

Notifications include a variety of quick reply styles, customizable chat heads, custom vibrations, and repeat reminders for messages you’ve missed. Premium features including speakerphone mode, SMS blacklisting, scheduled messaging, night mode, and more via in-app purchases.

Viber Messenger

Viber is one of the most popular messaging apps for android. Users can send text, photo, and video messages, send files, and make audio/video calls to other Viber users via WiFi/3G free of charge. The app recently group video calling feature bringing it up to the standard level. Viber also offers calls to landline and mobile numbers at competitive rates. It one of the best calling apps available.

Signal Private Messenger

Signal Private Messenger is an excellent privacy app. Privacy is a big aspect of this app, with end-to-end encryption keeping your messages secure once you’ve registered your number. Users can also send disappearing messages, make video calls, and do more stuff. It’s fast and reliable, provides free phone calls, even in long-distance.

The open-source app is more of a general messaging app than purely texting, but if your message recipient doesn’t use the app, they will receive a text instead. It can be used to chat in real-time while avoiding SMS charges, and you can also create groups and share attachments with friends.

Handcent

Handcent is one of the oldest and powerful texting apps packed with features, and many people choose to use it rather than the stock messenger app. It offers seamless texting across your smartphone, tablet, or PC and features MMS Plus, SMS backup, a pop-up window for quick replies, and a private box that can only be accessed with a unique password. It also includes scheduled tasks, group chat, bulk SMS, SMS blacklisting for spam or unwanted messages, night mode, scheduled texts, dual SIM device support, and Ecards.

The themes and background can be customized, and you can personalize aspects such as the bubble style, notification ringtone, fonts, colors, and more, and use emojis and stickers or add pins. The user interface is spotless, with limited clutter, and the app works smoothly.

WhatsApp Messenger

WhatsApp is arguably another most popular messaging app. It becomes so popular that eventually, Facebook had to acquire the app rather than competing with it. So, you can basically expect all the features from Facebook messenger to whats app sooner or later. However, WhatsApp has its own perks as well.

Users can send text messages to any number globally without any hidden costs or fees for the first year! Whether you are using WiFi or 3G/4G for messaging your favorite people, you can do so by easily switching from SMS to WhatsApp on the fly. WhatsApp makes it easy to chat affordably, from sending normal messages to picture messages, video messages, and even short audio notes. It even allows you to invite multiple people to a group chat.

Pulse SMS

This newer SMS app is a next-generation texting app that will let you send and receive texts from your PC, tablet, and other devices. Furthermore, you can use the app with dual-sim phones, create a blacklist to block phone numbers, backup messages, and more. It also offers suggested smart replies, password protect private conversations, Share GIFs, send automatic replies, and more things.

The mobile app is basically free but texting from PCs, tablets, and few other features will set back you $0.99 per month or a lifetime fee of $10.99.