The Android L (Lollipop? Lemon Meringue? Lime Key Pie???) is still a month or so away but already several apps have been adapting the the basic look of it. Textra SMS, an alternative messaging app for your Android device, is the first one among the apps of the same ilk to have adapted Android L’s Material Design and from the looks of it, it is indeed a beauty.
If you’re bored with your phone’s default messaging app, chances are you’ve looked around at several alternatives and maybe Textra SMS was one of those you considered but maybe didn’t go with. The latest update to the app though might make you reconsider, that is if you’ve already started falling in line with the Material Design that Google has been slowly rolling out to its native apps. It now has color theming so you can choose how your inbox would look like, thematically.
Aside from the look and feel, the update also brought several changes to make it easier to handle messages. To compose a new message, you can just tap on the plus icon located at the bottom right corner of the app. You can also do a quick compose message from your notifications drawer. To see the other options for the message (forward, send as email, lock), you long press the conversation bubble and click the settings button. If the floating notification for a new message appears, you can just right swipe it and it will be mark as read already, if you don’t have time to actually read the message. If you want to read it later, you can swipe up to dismiss it but it won’t be mark as read.
While the new look has definitely improved the app at least design-wise, some have complained that some of the previous features are no longer working (they might just need bug fixes though). But if you want to try the new look Textra SMS out, you can download it for free from the Google Play Store.