this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2026
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DeGoogle Yourself

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Trying to ditch Google messages without success. I hung onto the old Samsung app forever but it is super buggy for me. I tried to switch to textra, bought the paid version, but keep getting this "MMS timeout" message so idk if im not getting or sending messages correctly. Have tried all the fixes i found online to no avail. So, is there any real, decent alternative to Google messages?

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[–] rav@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago

QUIK, Fossify messenger, Right Messages.

[–] Muhammadsodiq@lemmy.org 1 points 3 days ago

QUIK SMS (dev.octoshrimpy.quik.fdroid) from F-Droid

[–] WeavingSpider@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago

Fossify messages work quite well.

[–] kadu@scribe.disroot.org 18 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Any special features you're looking for? Fossify messages works fine for me, and it supports both SMS and MMS. In fact, the entire Fossify suite of apps works really well in general.

[–] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] GlenRambo@jlai.lu 1 points 3 days ago

Inase you didn't know "quik" is a more active fork.

I've used the original and this for years.

https://github.com/octoshrimpy/quik

[–] alk@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Textra doesn't support RCS yet either so even if you don't use RCS, that's one reason it's not a full replacement. There really is nothing comprehensive right now that will give you all of the features, as far as I'm aware.

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Nothing will support RCS except Google Messages. Google closed the source and extensibility of the messaging framework quite a while back. Around the time Signal dropped SMS support.

[–] jnod4@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Why would anyone need RCS? What is RCS?

[–] alk@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's like SMS, a messaging standard. But compared to SMS, RCS enables features like end to end encryption, larger file attachments, rich text formatting, and much more. It is the new standard of messaging. Even iPhone texting is getting RCS support. I believe at some point SMS should die entirely and be replaced with RCS. It's more secure, less spoofable, more convenient, and feature rich.

[–] dev_null@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Except it's closed down and cannot be used by non-Google apps. Not an issue with the protocol itself, but that's the reality on Android. Let alone iOS.

[–] alk@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It can absolutely be used on iOS. In fact, it's already partially implemented and iOS is about to roll out end to end encryption in RCS as well.

[–] dev_null@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

Granted I don't use iOS so I might have missed it, but can you give an example of a third party texting app that can use RCS on iOS?

I thought the situation is the same as on Android - third party apps can only use SMS, not RCS.

[–] RyanDownyJr@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I'm in the same boat as you. Used Textra and Mighty Text years back but want to try swapping back. Doesn't seem like anything can compete with the robust features Messages has right now, unfortunately....

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I've been using textra for about 9 years now with no problems. Can't imagine the default offers anything it doesn't.

[–] rav@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Imagine how much your private data they harvested during whole that time...

https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/reports/705884

You aware of what tracker is?

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Instead of advertising to me about issues I'm trying to escape, can you help me find a reliable way to get a phone that runs cr droid or graphene? I want out of the corpo chokehold but getting a divice I can do that with is a fucking nightmare.

[–] Hera@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Im honestly fine without RCS I just dont know how ti get rid of the error message

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Oh shit, I missed that part in the post. Go into settings/mms/mms advanced and turn down the carrier send limit. It's trying to send it in too big of chunks so your carrier blocks it

[–] Hera@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I cant find that option. Maybe being stupid about it? I have a samsung s25

[–] Zulu@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Open up textra itself like youre going to text someone but havent chosen who yet, hit the three dots in the top right, settings, under messaging is MMS. Carrier send limit is in there.

[–] Hera@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So far so good! Thank you so much for that!

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Sorry, should have specified textra settings lol glad it's working!

[–] Hera@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Unfortunately I got the error message again, so I guess that isn't the fix?

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Try setting it to the very lowest and very highest and have a friend send you an image for each.

[–] Hera@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I set it to 100kb and got the Pic fine and then 2000kb and got the image fine. I previously set it to no limit.

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

There's the ticket. Just set it to the 2k and forget about it. Something about the "no limit" setting makes it choke on the data.

[–] Hera@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

So far so good! Dropping an update for future folks. Thanks again!

[–] Hera@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Thank you! I will try that.

[–] Hera@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Unfortunately I got the error message again, so I guess that isn't the fix?

[–] Hera@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

Thank you!! I tried it and will report back. It would be awesome if this works and I dont have to go back.