Pulse SMS applies end-to-end encryption as long as the person you're texting is also using Pulse, and for extra security you can password-protect certain conversations. Chats can be pinned to the top of the interface or organized into folders, and there’s a powerful search feature here too—if you can’t remember exactly who said what and when, Pulse should be able to help.

There’s a lot of flexibility in how you message, with scheduled messages, delayed sending, and support for auto replies. You can get back to messages later by snoozing them, compose messages more quickly with templates, and apply themes to your individual chats. Pulse SMS really does pack a lot on top of the basic SMS user experience.

Chomp SMS

Chomp SMS is more basic than Pulse SMS—but for a lot of people, that’s going to be perfectly fine. It focuses on the most important job of an app like this, which is the sending and receiving of SMS messages, wrapping it all up in a no-nonsense interface (if you want to add a bit more flair, there are a variety of app themes available).

That’s not to say there aren’t some handy features included in Chomp SMS. The Quick Reply feature, for example, lets you reply to texts in a pop-up overlay so you don’t have to leave whichever app you’re currently in. You can lock the app behind a passcode for extra privacy, and you can schedule messages to go out on a certain time and date if needed.

There’s an integrated text backup option here too, but perhaps the best part of Chomp SMS is how you can customize the way you receive messages. Individual contacts can all be assigned their own ringtones and vibrate patterns, so you always know who is getting in touch without actually looking at your phone screen.

SMS Organizer

SMS Organizer is a “Garage project” from Microsoft, which means it’s something of a side hobby for its developers. While it may not have the profile of the more official Microsoft apps, SMS Organizer is still reg...