Message+ Reviews

I was truly excited to finally see an app that allows to have auto reply functionality in text messaging. Truly a blessing for folks that have clients who reach out to you via text over other means. In the beginning, it worked wonderfully. However, for some reason, it has become extremely finicky when trying to turn it on and off. Often times you have to flip the lever a few times to get it to stick. And even when you do, there’s times where I would back out come back and the lever would be still in the original position. They really truly need to focus on this on the next update. I have used this functionality for the last couple of years. Jump ahead to a couple of months ago, the auto reply functionality is stuck in the on position. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Message numerous times, and it is still stuck there. Right now there’s a trouble ticket into Verizon, but there has been no resolution as of yet. And at some point, they also need to increase the maximum auto reply character count I would say at least an extra 30 to 40 characters Minimum. I really would love to see this work properly, but it needs a lot of work clearly.

i absolutely love Message, i downloaded on my iphone because i wanted to accessorize my messaging app, yes it looks pretty good now, but i noticed something. When i this app iphone users who use imessage, i can’t see their messages on Message , so then i have to go out of Message , and go to imessage to see their messages, another thing i noticed is that when you this app someone on Message and they this app you back, you get a notification from your original messaging app as well, please fix that, it gets annoying when i get 2 notifications per this app when it isn’t an iphone user. One final thing is that when i receive a notification that someone texted me, it only shows their phone number and i don’t know who texted me until i’m in Message , which we all know that sometimes you want to ignore people, but you can’t do that here because you don’t know who it is. that’s all, thanks.

I have iPhone 6S. It’s getting to the point where it isn’t notifying my when I gets texts randomly. I was excited to find Message. My phone alerts me now thru Message when I get texts, except for iMessages, which is fine. I chose not to turn off the iMessage feature on my phone. Message is great for texting those without iMessage. It says sent, delivered, read, and shows when someone is typing u back, just like iMessaging. I like how customizable Message is. Backgrounds, fonts and text bubble colors. And it is syncing between my phone, iPad and Apple Watch, which wasn’t working as it should thru the regular this app app that comes on all these devices. It’s nice to be able to text people without Apple devices from my iPad too. However, Message is glitchy. It will shutdown randomly, and then you lose whatever u were going to send in a text, even pics, and have to type it all again. That is frustrating. And sometimes when I receive texts it will say who the text is from by name, and other times just show the phone number, even if you have been continually texting the same person who is a saved contact. So over all it’s an ok app. If the glitches were addressed, I would have given 5 stars.

Like most people, I don’t tend to write reviews for things I like. I also don’t tend to write reviews about things I don’t care for, but this application deserves a review.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a whole lot of great things to say about Message. I have lots of issues with it. I certainly consider it a necessary evil. I don’t like how it doesn’t play nice with the native messages app (which I still feel like is far superior to any other messages app out there). I have the desktop version of this application and it does not talk with the mobile version, which is a very big oversight and needs to be dealt with. It frequently displays the incorrect number of unread messages in the bubble on Message icon. The entire app feels like it was thrown together in a very short period of time by a development team that was not given appropriate resources to build a great app. Yes, I have the latest versions of each app.

At this time, the only reason I haven’t deleted Message altogether is because I’ve recently started to have issues with receiving large media files from folks who do not have iPhones so cannot use iMessages. Use Message if you need to, but don’t download it just for fun.

Okay first the positives: i love having a messaging app that allows for customizable fonts, backgrounds, etc. It says when messages are sent, delivered, and read. That’s where the positives end. It is glitchy and will sometimes shut off when I’m in the middle of typing. It doesn’t always notify me with the person’s name. For some reason their number will show up as if they were not saved in my phone. I left iMessages on bc I still wanted to use it to text my friends that did have an iPhone, but I found my messages would show up twice, once in each app. I figured this was just a compromise I would have to make for leaving iMessages on. HOWEVER my biggest issue is that there are no settings to block a number, and Message does not cooperate with the native phone app and messages app. I had someone blocked on my phone and Message allowed the messages to go through. BIGGEST MISTAKE. I only got Message because VZW is requiring it to view bigger media files sent from non-iPhone users. VZW, I am deleting Message until you get your act together. Sheesh.

This is a pretty neat app initially and has some awesome features. So far I have run into a couple problems with it already and I haven't had it more than 24 hours yet.. it won't let me load my info into the 911 response for some reason..it just tells me to try later (and I don't think I have to go into details at why that is important that the feature needs to work). I've also tried the auto reply feature, however it for some reason won't let me turn it on after I followed all the directions.

Also, I don't know if I'm missing something but I wish there was an option to be able to turn the alerts off because I don't want it on at all times and don't like getting 2 alerts every time I get a new text this app.

Overall..after some updates have been made I think this will be a very handy app!

Setup correctly on compatible devices, the this app+ app can only receive calls on devices that originally were designed to make calls in the first place. What does this mean?

Basically, unless you’re using this app+ on a calling-enabled smart watch or just another smart phone, you cannot expect to receive incoming calls on your device in a reliable manner. In fact, the only times you will receive calls in the this app+ app on a non-calling enabled device (such as iPads, Galaxy Tabs, or anything that isn’t a phone or latest-gen smart watch by Apple or Samsung) is if you literally have the this app+ app open and running as the primary app all the time. No closing Message , or letting it run in the background, and definitely no locking your device or closing the Smart Cover.

So for anyone that wishes to use the this app+ app on a non-calling enabled device to be able to receive calls at any time, don’t do it. It does not work. Do not expect VZW to change this at any point in the near future.

I have about 30 devices I am responsible for in our business and I pretty well hate Verizon messages. If you change a droid device to an iOS (via SIM card change) it will kill all group messages on both devices so you can’t even put the sim back in the old phone to return to what it was. It will also spam everyone in all your groups at least each 3 times for each group. Exploding all your coworkers phones with dozens to hundreds of texts. When you call Verizon to try and fix it they will scratch their sac for a while and blame it on apple. Meanwhile your phone number/SIM card won’t work with !any! Group messages for the foreseeable future. And if you decide to stay with the iOS device…you can send messages in Verizon messages but you won’t receive any! At all…except through the apple this app app which won’t do group messages. So the long and short of it is…try it…I dare you!!!!!!

Recently I won’t get my messages until i open Message and there’s a 10 min delay for the messages to come. I originally thought it was my phone or service but my service was working perfectly on all other apps, amazing service ty verizon! I then put my sim in another device which has msg plus and still has the same problem:( so I switched to a diff messaging app and my messages were working normally.

I definitely love Message that it saves all your messages and are able to use on multiple devices. I also love the public profile pic feature, most messaging apps don’t have that. Another amazing feature is the customization where it gives you a lot of cool features to customize your app look.

But overall it only deserves a 2 star due to the fact that the main purpose of Message is to get your messages;)

With the latest iOS release I have never had so many sms or fail to deliver to so many End Points on any OS or mobile device. In addition to other Apple and nonApple end users this app failing to arrive, there were no setting to correct to get it going. No other apps or setting to adjust, with or without a vpn - on wifi or on carrier services, iMessage failed to perform. I like this device and OS agnostic app and hope you at least try it as I have used it for almost eight years on different PC, Tablet and Cell Phone OS’s and it has been the best I have ever used. I am a carrier employee, however am speaking from an end user consumer experience and perspective. Thx!

I have this app+ on my iPad and, as far as sending/receiving texts and photos it’s fine. The gigantic Elephant in the room is I just discovered that said texts/photos are NOT automatically backed up. One has to PURCHASE (for $6.99 per month) the ability to back up my info! Something that was NEVER EXPLAINED to me until AFTER I LOST all my text messages and photos!! Contacts/texts/photos should be automatically backed up - and it should be INCLUDED WITH Message ....and to add insult to injury, even if I were to be stupid enough to pay that monthly fee - it still does NOT back up messages and photos!?!? Whoever designed Message should be slapped upside the head, twice!!

Tell me again how long you've been around? 🤔
Those of us who didn't have Verizon as our service provider had to download your app to receive a short video from a vacation with friends - per directions from the Verizon user's phone❗️ At first a small inconvenience 🙄considering all of the other phone providers were compatible, since the non Verizon phones 📱 were sending media back and forth all week.
Okay- App downloaded and video was sent, received..... 😏next you would save it to your gallery or share it in your social media or with family... nope😩. Trying to save it, it says "report spam" or "delete" are your choices. Verizon fix this!😠This does not make me want you as my service provider 😑quite the opposite.
1. You cannot save the media from your app, 2. now every time you open Message it downloads the video again and again. What a miserable experience and disappointment with the Verizon this app app. 👎👎👎👎👎

There are far more things I don’t like about Message than things I like. I will admit that I don’t rate apps very often, but I use Message so much and it bothers me so much that I need to say something in hopes that the developers are notified and given resources to make Message better.

Message takes a long time to load. It inaccurately displays the number of unread messages. I have the Mac app as well and they don’t seem to talk with each other (it might be related to the inaccurate “unread messages” issue). Message has crashed a few times. It doesn’t push all messages to the native “Messages” app. I’ve had other issues, but they have been less noticeable and less cumbersome.

What I enjoy about Message is it handles large file transfers better than the native Messages app ONLY when sending and receiving files from non-Apple devices (which is why I gave it a two-star rating instead of a one-star rating). The native Messages app still outperforms Message in about 40% of those situations, though.

At the end of the day - if you can live without Message, I’d recommend not even bothering with it. If you have to have it, be prepared to deal with lots of little annoyances until the developers are given the opportunity and resources necessary to fix the plethora of bugs.

It’s an okay messaging app with a good amount of features, except one absolutely CRITICAL feature for those of us who have two cell phones (like one for business and one for personal).

Message can only handle one phone number’s messaging. So for those of us that have only one tablet and two phones (all on Verizon’s network, no less), we can’t even use it as a text messaging center on our tablet, which partially defeats the purpose of having the tablet app version in the first place.

Come on Verizon, with your billions and billions of dollars, you can’t even come up with an app that can handle two phone numbers’ text messaging concurrently?

Ideally, you could have the two (or more) phone numbers listed at the top left to easily tap on and go back and forth between their different sets of messages. You could also have an optional integrated view that combines them — so you can see and reply to all messages from a single view. At least offer the first option to us with full syncing with those phones’ messages.

Basically, think of treating it like many email clients do with handling multiple accounts. Then you’d truly have a really useful messaging app, and could give Apple Messages a run for their money.

Beware of having Verizon as your cell / iPad service provider as they FORCE you to use this terribly slow app on newer iPads. It’s dismal performance is sub-par in every way to the apple text app we are familiar with using. Each and every time I need to enter a name or phone number there is substantial lag time. The window for composing a this app is small and does not expand with a larger this app, so one must scroll through limited visibility. It is difficult and slow to erase a this app if desired. The program often freezes and has to be shut down or re-installed. AND if you send a link for article or video in typical text app you will see a clickable icon that makes it clear what article or video is. With Message you are only able to send the url and must therefore explain in words what is being sent. If I could have given 0 Stars I would have..

I like the changes. Here are four things that I suggest: 1) When we go to fill in the name of the person to send a scheduled text to, there needs to be a search option. 2) We should be able to send to named groups. For instance, I have a group called Mom & Dad but they don’t show up for a scheduled this app in the new update. 3) When sending a scheduled this app, the tiny box needs to be much bigger. It should take up most of the screen. 4) For the auto-reply, allow us to make/save templates. If you want to take #4 even further, allow us to preset different auto-replies during different times of day & week. (ie: one for work hours, one for while I’m asleep, etc.

Before I downloaded Message , my family started a Verizon+ group chat. It came through as a group text. Except, despite having all of their contacts saved in my phone, the messages just showed up with their phone numbers. I know their numbers but it was still annoying to decipher. Pictures and other media would not come through.

So I discovered and downloaded Message , which was a relief. It’s okay. Nothing particularly special but it works. The most annoying thing is that on my iPhone, I now receive the messages on the Verizon+ app AND in my texts. I get a double notification every time someone texts a group chat. It’s incredibly irritating. Please make this more compatible with iPhones for people who aren’t Verizon customers... there are a lot of us. Thanks.

I seldom provide reviews and recognize things happen between releases. I applaud the intent for Message which essentially is a vendor agnostic chat solution that works over SMS. It kind of does that (sometimes), but with lots of limitations and caveats. However, it’s hard for me to believe that the team who developed this actually uses it themselves. I am pretty tech savvy and I struggle with Message. Documentation does not match the features actually there and when they do they often don’t work. Great idea, poor execution, and even poorer quality assurance. For a major company like Verizon I would be embarrassed to release such an app. Actually any company/person should for something this poorly executed. Many other apps are much better, but are not as simple as SMS, but at least they work as advertised.

My job requires an on-call rotation, however I have an AT&T personal phone. I thought Message would be perfect to forward calls and texts from my work device to my personal so that I don’t have to carry 2 phones. The text this app forwarding works fairly reliably, however I call forwarding does not. It works - as long as I have Message open and in the foreground. As soon as it isn’t, call forwards shut off. I can’t imagine this is by design because the chances of someone just leaving Message open at all times, even on a secondary device like an iPad, are so slim it can’t be considered useful.

Another gripe I have is that, if you send messages from Message , they only appear in Message on the original device. So if you use Apple’s built-in messages app, you won’t have a full log of your conversations.

The last two updates have really brought Message back in time. It no longer synchronizes correctly between products that have the same version of Message with the same user account installed. There is no reason in today's day and age that I would have to sort through three different devices in order to review a complete previous conversation. I thought the whole idea was, 'One app with one service for all your devices.'??? One minute it's telling me that it requires the Verizon cloud while at the same moment in time I am receiving emails from Verizon telling me that the Verizon cloud is ceasing to exist. After installing the newest version on a brand new device straight out of the box I am mediately started getting error messages telling me that the VIP future would not be functional or available to me. Enough typing, time to uninstall!

I downloaded Message because a friend sent a video and apparently that was the only way I could view it.
Within an hour I had at least 10 spam emails flooding my email inbox. I’m thinking jeez. What did enter my email address in to to get all this junk mail. Not just unwanted junk from some service I have a log in for. Literally junk ice never seen before like #trumpcaremedicare# and **skinnypill** and AHSwarranty2019 and [certified]lettersfromsanta... as the sender identification. Like I’ve literally never signed up for anything that would send me anything involving trump.... and this flood started literally at the same time I downloaded Message. I literally watched a new email arrive while I was being horrified by the amount of spam I had received in a hour. I though this was a Verizon app. I’m assuming it must be and that’s how they got my email. Because I never entered anything besides a phone number. And I was hesitant to even sync my contacts. I said no to every other permission. And now I regret not saying no to my contacts access. I have deleted Message from my phone and have since received at least three more spam emails.

If they do not stop I will be taking dramatic further action.

I have been harassed by someone trying to get my number after stealing all my data for the two factor authentication. They have harassed me and my father even using the SIM card of the galaxy 8s+ to stop the XR from updating by preloading it with something. I took it to an apple store flashed it was behaving. But I put Message in after getting another SIM card then 2 days later find out the person was texting links through it to prepare a connection to another device using Message loading safari with redirects and other data to other apps to alter settings one text at a time. Last night it began spoofing other WiFi networks and trying to auto sync with everything if it didn’t have the links section that wouldn’t have happened. Beware Message needs permissions to work and with that exploit it with poison links I even get robo calls the turn on my location or run other Verizon apps to block calls or auto connect to devices. They need to fix this.

Texting seems to work fairly well on my iPad, but the integrated calling telephone service suddenly stopped working about a month ago. Verizon keeps writing technical service tickets to work on resolving this, but has not fixed it yet. The worst part of the calling feature not working is the repeated error messages that pop up several times a day saying calling can't be activated now. I am not event trying to activate calling and the error messages appear. Was much better app 2 months ago.

Text messages don't alway synchronize with phone. This has been true with all versions in past 6 months that I have been using Message .

I’ve been using Message every since I switched carriers. Let’s say that is over 5 years. My only trouble was when certain types of media’s wouldn’t download automatically or an attachment size was too large.

I use it on multiple devices. When there’s a new update, I always check the default settings as well as restarting my devices. I like my settings to download either on WiFi or cellular data versus just WiFi. With my devices set that way, I find I have no syncing problems. I have yet to run into a problem.

Although default messaging works for some people, I’ll always download this app+ when I get a new device.

I have an iPhone 6S and it’s hit or miss as to weather or not I get a notification that I’ve received a msg. Sometimes the msgs don’t even come through at all. To improve functionality, the developers suggest shutting off iMessage because the formatting isn’t compatible with Message. Shutting off iMessage causes issues communicating with other iDevices. This becomes a real problem if you have children who can only msg via WiFi.

Besides that, the design is simple. A bit lacking in the navigation department, however. It has miner customization capabilities that are nicer to look at than the standard iMessage. Could be a decent app if the bugs were worked out. Seeing as there haven’t been any updates in the past 7 months, though, I’m not holding out for fixes any time soon.