Google may have made Hangouts the default SMS/MMS app in Android, but the integration is half-baked at best. Using Hangouts to send a SMS feels more like a chore than a simple task. In comes EvolveSMS, from the developers of Sliding Messaging, that aims to become the stock messaging client on your Android device.

EvolveSMS has been made with the newest UI/UX guidelines from Google in mind and looks absolutely stunning. The developers have also taken advantage of the transparent navigation and status bar feature on devices running Android 4.4 KitKat.

The devs. have also added all the features that one can expect a third-party SMS client to pack nowadays. This includes MMS support, emojis support, Templates, Password protection and more.

Below is the full feature list of EvolveSMS -:

Main features:

• A beautiful and smooth interface for sliding between conversations so everything is just a swipe away
• Full multimedia support including sending pictures, videos, audio, contacts, GIFs and your location
• A popup that allows you full access to anything in the app and looks great
• Group messaging support
• Full Light Flow support
• 2 different widgets with lockscreen support
• Swipe to delete conversations
• Batch deleting messages
• Archiving messages
• Fully customizable notifications
• Password protection
• Full emoji support (850+ emojis, Android or iOS 7 style)
• And much more 🙂

Unlockable with the customization plugin from inside the app:

• 3 theme options: light, dark and black
• 3 different layouts: Evolve, Hangouts, and Classic
• Facebook and Google+ cover photo integration
• Facebook contact photo integration
• Night mode
• Apply addon themes to fully customize every aspect of look in the app

Unlockable with the feature plugin from inside the app:

• More MMS options (locations, GIFs and contacts)
• Message backup through Dropbox
• Private inbox
• Templates
• Scheduled SMS messages
• Personalized mass messages

As you can see, the feature list of the app is huge and covers pretty much everything that you can expect from an SMS app. The developer has also been working hard on fixing bugs in the app via quick updates, ever since the app was released on the Play Store.

While EvolveSMS itself is free to download, you will need to pay $0.99 each to unlock the each additional plugin mentioned in the feature list above.

Sticking to Hangouts or replacing it with EvolveSMS? Definitely drop in a comment and let us know what you do.