The Best SMS App for Android is made by Microsoft
Looking for good SMS app for Android? The Google Play Store lists a gazillion texting apps that can do SMS, MMS, and so much more. The most popular options include Facebook Messenger that has texting as a side feature, TrueCaller that can identify senders and then there’s Android Messages, Google’s own SMS app that also includes audio chats, emojis and location sharing.
I prefer minimal apps that do one thing and do it really well. After testing all the popular texting apps for Android, the one I absolutely love is SMS Organizer from Microsoft. If the app is not available in your country, get the APK from apkpure.com or apkmirror.com and sideload on your phone.
SMS Organizer is a pure SMS app, simple and efficient but with no extra bells and whistles. Here’s a list of useful features that make this Android app a must-have.
1. OTP Detection
When you log into a website that requires 2-factor authentication, your bank for example, they send a one-time-password (OTP) to your mobile phone in a text message. You open the message, copy the digits and paste into the login screen.
SMS organizer makes this process a lot easier for you. It detects if a text contains an OTP and give you an option to copy the code directly from the notification menu. No need to even open the message.
2. Google Drive Integration
Microsoft SMS Organizer can automatically backup SMS messages to your Google Drive. You can perform the backup manually and let the app do it for every day or every week. If you move to a new phone later, you can easily restore your text chats from the cloud.
3. Intelligent Message Sorting
The SMS app automatically sorts your text messages as they arrive into categories like transactions, promotional, and blocked. So all text messages from your bank or your mobile service provider go in one folder while the bulk message goes into promotions.
4. Email Like Filters
This is my favorite feature of SMS organizer. You can long-press a text message and it will let you define a filter for the sender of that message. All future messages from that particular sender will be moved to the designated folder automatically.
5. Smart Reminders
If any of your text messages have a due date, SMS organizer will show you a notification when the due date is approaching. For instance, if your credit card bill is due, you’ll be automatically reminded via a notification.
SMS organizer can send reminders for due bills, travel dates, upcoming appointments and more. You can also setup your own customer reminders inside the app and the text of the selected message will show up at the specified date and time.
6. Send Free SMS
You can use SMS organizer to send up to 30 text messages for free every month to any mobile number in India. These messages are sent via the Internet so even if you do not have cellular connectivity, the texts would still go out.
Microsoft’s SMS app is free, doesn’t include any in-app purchases, contains no advertising and all the data resides locally on your mobile device.
You can use the IFTTT app to save your text messages in a Google Sheet or for receiving texts as an email message. PushBullet and AirDroid can be used for viewing and responding to text notifications from your desktop computer.
Update: A reader from Ireland wrote that while she could sideload the SMS apk from a third-party website, the app could not be used as it requires them to verify with an Indian phone number. Looks like Microsoft has made this wonderful app only for the Indian market.
Amit Agarwal
Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion
Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.
Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory