SMS text messages seem to be used with less frequency every day, messaging apps that use the internet to keep us connected are far more popular these days because they offer much more functionality than just sending texts. The popularity of these apps began when sending SMS was more expensive than sending texts over the internet, and even though texting with SMS has gotten much cheaper, as some carrier plans include unlimited SMS, texting over the internet is still more convenient as you can send all sorts of files using these apps and even calling, plus, let’s not forget that using SMS, you’re limited to 160 character per message.
Still, if you’re looking for a third-party app to send SMS, there are many options available at the Play Store. One of the best ones is called Textra, as it runs very smoothly, it is designed using Google’s Material Design language and it offers some customization options such as choosing their favorite accent color and even the color of the icon, additionally, they get to choose the size of the text. Using this app, advanced SMS and MMS functionality is available, such as scheduled messages, MMS group messaging and SMS blocking. There are some shortcuts to delete the message or make a call to that contact as well as a quick reply popup. The app recently got updated to version 3.13, which included more than 1600 emojis, even those with different colored skins. We had seen these emojis included in Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but the company promised that these were being supported in older versions such as KitKat and Lollipop.
Now, the company has communicated that version 3.14 will be available starting tomorrow and it will bring all of the new emojis to older devices running Jelly Bean and Ice Cream Sandwich. If users are already running a company’s custom ROM which includes emojis, they will be able to choose between those and the new ones, even the ones from Twitter are available. With this update, 5 new bubble styles will also become available, so it’s nice to see the company bringing new features to devices running older operating systems even if they’re not that popular, let’s remember that Ice Cream Sandwich is currently running in just 2.5% of Android devices.