Description: Shoot the Messenger is an Android app that aims to make texting family and friends both safer and a lot less stressful. Essentially, Shoot the Messenger brings organization to the chaos that can be text messenging. Sure, SMS is great and all but, if you’re texting multiple people at once, it’s easy to text the wrong person, with Shoot the Messenger, you can limit the damage and effectively “kill” a message before it gets to them. The same can be said for the big game, you were working that Sunday and you missed the game, so you’re a little behind and you want to watch your taped copy in peace. With Shoot the Messenger, you can prevent all your buddies texting you and ruining the score or a story plot of your favorite TV show you missed that week. Overall, it’s a better-featured SMS app for Android, with advanced features that help you control what can become a messy ordeal of modern life. You can find out more about Shoot the Messenger from their website.
How it Works: Shoot the Messenger uses the same SMS protocol that your default messaging app uses so, all you need to do is download it from the Play Store and launch it like any other app. If you want to carry over your messages from your other apps, you can do so by importing them across.
When you have all of your messages imported, you’ll see a list of conversations, just like other messaging apps:
Sending a message also works just like any other messaging app, it doesn’t take much relearning at all to use Shoot the Messenger.
Where things get a lot different however, is in the features that make this different, and give the app its title. To be able to “take back” something you’ve said, there is a send delay in Shoot the Messenger. Giving you a predefined about of time to cancel a message before being sent to the network.
Other features, include the ability to schedule text messages. This is great for remember birthdays, without actually remembering birthdays and scheduling texts like “Happy Christmas” and “Happy New Year”, which we’re sure took you a long time to text while you should’ve been partying!
You can get to all of these settings from the simple menu in the corner of the app.
Opinion: Shoot the Messenger certainly has a lot going for it, and while a lot of the features seem like no-brainers, not many other messaging apps offer them. For someone like me, who is pretty oldschool when it comes to using their phone when out (I spend enough time writing about the things), being able to schedule messages like Happy New Year wishes is a big help, and it lets you party and connect with friends a lot better than it would normally. We all forget birthdays as well but, thanks to Shoot the Messenger’s scheduling, nobody will be able to tell. The UI is easy enough to use but, it doesn’t blend in very well with stock Android or other devices, it could do with a little more polish and a “softer” tone but, it’s easy to use and nobody will be confused by any of the controls.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – Shoot the Messenger runs great, and there are no slowdowns in sight.
- Features (5/5) – Offering everything you’d expect in a messaging app, as well as some valuable extras, Shoot the Messenger has it all.
- Theme (3.5/5) – Honestly, the look and feel of the app could do with some work, it feels a little too “robotic” for a communication app but, the UI is very easy to use and understand, at least.
- Overall (4/5) – Despite the theme of the app, Shoot the Messenger is a great messaging app and it’s perfect for those with lots of friends that result in a lot of voices sometimes.
Pros
- Easy to understand and follow UI.
- Advanced features like Scheduling and Stealth Mode allow for peace when you need it most, and you won’t fall out with any of your friends on their birthdays.
- Allows you to carry over your old messages to keep the same conversations in place.
- Despite the advanced features, it still functions like any other messaging app – making it easy to get to grips with.
Cons
- Shoot the Messenger is definitely not the best-looking messaging app out there but, it is easy to use.
- Better use of high-resolution displays would be nice to see.
Conclusion: Shoot the Messenger is a pretty great SMS messaging app for Android. It offers people different features that seem like no-brainers but, in practice can be extremely useful. For those time you don’t want to be disturbed but, don’t want a permenant solution, you can just enter stealth mode for a couple of hours. Which makes that movie or TV show you missed an enjoyable experience without resorting to messing around on your phone that we so often do these days. Scheduling texts is another great feature, and maybe this year you won’t forget your best friend’s birthday, or at least it won’t look like you did. It doesn’t cost much, and while the UI isn’t the nicest looking out there, it’s well worth a try and the extra features might be great for you.