A few days ago, I casually recommended the Handcent SMS app in my post about the Sprint HTC Hero messaging app glitch. Long story short, the Hero Messaging app was causing the battery to drain and replacing it with a new one from the Android Market fixes the issue. I got a few comments on the post and quite a few Twitter replies, mainly praising the Handcent app. I covered a few other the app’s features, but I thought it you guys might enjoy a thorough write-up on it to give you a better idea why I enjoy the app so much.
Handcent is a replacement SMS app for the Android platform. The first time I downloaded Handcent was back in early May. At the time, Hancent has some neat features which made it better than the standard Android SMS app, but since I was constantly flashing my G1, I found it quite annoying to install the app every few days. Over time though, Handcent was continually updated with new features and now has evolved into one of the most feature rich sms apps for Android.
Customization: Handcent can be customized to your heart’s content. The app allows you to choose various skins (Hero or iPhone), themes (light or dark), and conversation styles (Handcent classic, Hancdent, iPhone, Android) so that your sms conversations take on the feel that you want. Hancent also gives you the option to add a custom wallpaper to your messaging screen, change the font style, add or remove contact pictures, and even add in a signature to your sms.
Handcent Popup: For months I was using an app from the Android Market called Popup SMS. It would display and incoming SMS in a pop-up window so that you didn’t have to drag down your notification bar, click you sms and then read it. All the information you need was right there on the screen. Popup SMS was my app of choice until Hancent added the same feature to their app. Hancent’s poppup sms message allows you to read the new message, reply to it, view other messages, or go to the sender’s contact information.
Speak SMS: Probably one of the coolest features of Handcent is the apps ability to write out your message through voice recognition. Handcent uses Android’s built-in voice recognition software (the same one that it used for the Google Voice Search) for this process. While composing a message, just hit the menu button on your phone and select "Speak". The feature works pretty well if you speak slow enough and enunciate your words properly. I’ve found that it’s a feature I use quite a bit while driving and is also one of those "neat tricks" I show off to friends who don’t have Android phones. The speak SMS option is also available from the sms popup window.
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Group SMS: One of my personal complaint I had about the stock Android sms app was that it did not allow you to send messages to the groups you had saved in your contacts. The HTC Hero’s messaging app fixed this by allowing you to send a group message. handcent takes things one step further by allowing you to send a message to multiple groups. While composing a new message, press the plus sign to add a recipient. The next screen will show you the "groups" tab and from there you can select the check box for all the groups you want the message to go to. This is great when you have groups set up. I use the groups feature in my Gmail all the time and am a bit perplexed as to why it was left out of the standard app.
Handcent Widget: Many HTC Hero owners enjoy a small extra feature that iPhone users have come to love. The Hero’s Sense UI allows the messaging app icon to display how many new messages you have. With Handcent, you now have one less feature you covet from Hero owners. The Handcent allows you to place a widget on your home screen which looks just like the apps icon, but features a little green bubble that displays how many new messages you have. It’s a small feature that most people will overlook, but just shows the attention to detail and complete overall user experience that the Handcent team is dedicated to deliver.
It’s really hard to write about every single feature that Handcent has to offer. My suggestion to you is to simply download the app form the Android Market and give it a try.
