What is the second most used function of a mobile phone after making calls? For most of us this would be short text messages or SMS. Moreover, some people use this feature more often than voice communication. These magical 160-character messages are simply irreplaceable for most teenagers and students! Android’s standard messaging application certainly provides the basic SMS functionality, but there is no limit to perfection, and Handcent SMS proves it.
Program’s default theme is very similar to the iPhone. However, this does not mean that this style is the best. There are four different themes at your disposal, all available in light and dark colors.
The following parameters are configurable in Handcent SMS: conversation lists, the conversations themselves, warnings, sound signals, and much more. Do you like conversation lists with contact photos – you can easily set this up. Want to make them smaller – easy! Want to remove them all together – you can do this!
Conversations themselves are fully configurable. You can customise ways to display site links, phone numbers, email addresses, names, dates, background colors and fonts of incoming and outgoing messages. You can even set your own image as a background for a dialogue. I think that it will be very hard to find someone who is not satisfied with the number of settings or interface options.
Do you use smileys in your messages? Of course they are supported, but if, for some reason, you do not like them, you can disable them.
New message notifications deserve special mentioning. It is possible to configure separate notifications for each contact, change notification ringtone, vibration, the icon that appears in the status bar when a new message is received, even adjust the LED blinking frequency. You can also activate a privacy mode, in which there will be no signals, no vibration – just a notice in the status bar. Who knows what message you can receive 
.
Have you ever been in a situation where your friend called to ask why you are not replying to the SMS? But you simply did not hear it, as you were surrounded by screaming kids, or a noisy truck was passing you, or you just had the headphones on? Handcent SMS has a solution to this problem. You can set a reminder, which will let you know that there is an unread message. You only need specify how many times and over what time interval should the reminder be triggered.
The application can also notify you of an incoming SMS when you are on the phone – with a vibration or a signal.
Do you like to be original? Add a personal signature to each SMS. This can help those who use messaging at work. For example, for customer messages I added a signature “Yours faithfully, Droid”.
If you have a lot of contacts and each of them has several different phone numbers, Handcent SMS can be configured to display, for example, only mobile numbers (and hide office, home, and any others). If you are tired of telemarketers or strangers sending your messages, you can add their numbers (if available) to the blacklist, and messages from these numbers will be ignored.
I can keep describing the benefits of this program, but you should probably try it for yourself. Handcent SMS can be installed from the Android Market for free.
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