Other alternatives:

A reason to avoid the stock SMS app on Android:

Android’s Messages, Dialer apps quietly sent text, call info to Google

Google’s Messages and Dialer apps for Android devices have been collecting and sending data to Google without specific notice and consent, and without offering the opportunity to opt-out, potentially in violation of Europe’s data protection law.

According to a research paper, “What Data Do The Google Dialer and Messages Apps On Android Send to Google?” [PDF], by Trinity College Dublin computer science professor Douglas Leith, Google Messages (for text messaging) and Google Dialer (for phone calls) have been sending data about user communications to the Google Play Services Clearcut logger service and to Google’s Firebase Analytics service.

“The data sent by Google Messages includes a hash of the message text, allowing linking of sender and receiver in a message exchange,” the paper says. “The data sent by Google Dialer includes the call time and duration, again allowing linking of the two handsets engaged in a phone call. Phone numbers are also sent to Google.”

The timing and duration of other user interactions with these apps has also been transmitted to Google. And Google offers no way to opt-out of this data collection.

  • /bin/bash/@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    People say Qksms is unmaintained, but Qksms has a lot of cool SMS features, and they simply work.

    Why? Because SMS itself has received no updates for more than 20 years.

    And will never get.

    • bramblepatchmystery@slrpnk.net
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      8 months ago

      I misunderstand how people claim to love QKSMS so much. I honestly think it is the least useful open source app in 2024.

      No matter what I did I couldn’t send or receive video, and while I could receive photos, I had to open the stock texting app if I myself wanted to send somebody else a picture.

      Maybe the app doesn’t fully work for people on adroid 13 or 14?

      • /bin/bash/@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Sorry to hear that you have a problem with the Qksms. Usually, I don’t send or receive videos, so after I read your comment, I tried to send a short video to myself, and it worked. Yes, I have Android 14 as well.

        The root cause of your problem must be in the connection settings, or the video is too large.

        If you can connect your phone to the PC and open Android Studio, select the log tab, and you will see everything that is going on in your phone’s background. Now, try to send the video again. All errors related to that will appear as red text in the logs.

        I hope you can fix it.