[Shardz]

App: chomp SMS v7.21
Developer: Delicious Inc.
Category: Communication
Price: N/A
IAP: $1.59 - $3.99

Chomp SMS is a sleek and compact alternative solution for text messaging that attempts to lock horns with some major contenders in a very crowded market of relative applications. Without listing the current competition in this area since no reviews have been written on them as of yet, I will simply focus aim on Google's Hangouts since it is a default app on many devices. As functional as Hangouts appears to be, it lacks options and customization due to Google's inability to deviate from their Material Design philosophy, which seems to be currently stuck on stark white screens with no options to change it whatsoever. Enter Chomp SMS. Starting at a mere glance, it's quite a departure from Hangouts in a tidy and streamlined package with a modern look of Lollipop, yet extends way beyond with interesting ways to customize nearly every aspect of the interface. The initial impression you get is that it's polished, organized, efficient and minimal, which is accurately conveyed by design for your texting pleasure. In relation to Hangouts, there is no comparison as the feature set that it boasts far surpasses it, and even other similar types of apps which have large followings. One such rivaling application got so bulky and slow with plugins that even the developer himself admitted it had spiraled out of control, which caused major performance issues, crashes and delays in messages. Happily, this is not the case with Chomp SMS as it was built for speed and reliability from the ground up, while integrating complete user control over aesthetics.

As I mentioned that Hangouts is a direct rival, there is some confusion as to the true competitor of Chomp SMS, which is also produced by Delicious Inc.; Textra SMS. I conducted some research and came up with very little regarding which app was produced first and why there are two by the same developer; however, there are some notable differences between the two for certain. Textra SMS is a bit more scaled down regarding aspects of customization and does not offer the wealth of options and settings that Chomp SMS boasts. Textra SMS also lacks options to customize the contact pictures, delayed sending in which written messages can be easily reviewed and text speech that reads back messages for hands-free operation. As less features are implemented within Textra SMS, it is considered to be a bit faster in performance as it uses less memory and is also less graphically intensive. For all intents and purposes, I normally gravitate towards the flagship apps that offer all the bells and whistles one could ever desire; thus, my choice of the two competing variants would be none other than Chomp SMS for my preferred review.

Firstly, the customization of the interface is unparalleled with hundreds of skins available to easily obtain the exact look that you desire, and anything else in between if you are the curious type. Within the settings menu exists an option called ThemeIt! that presents you with two basic default themes of light and dark with a button to download more free themes, and there are tons of them! Another option presented is to download imported fonts to display the text to your liking, which means you can obtain and install external fonts with a simple button press to deviate from system fonts. The incredible aspect here is the exhaustively thorough theme editor that holds settings to change every single facet you can imagine to custom tailor the interface to your liking, and we're talking almost 50 parameters just for visuals! There are tons of notifications icons in all colors, custom ring tones per user and send sounds, six assignable LED colors to choose from, vibration patterns and a host of other customizations to make this app behave as you want it to. Also, there is a massive collection of emoji of over 800 to pick and choose from to quickly inform your recipients just how you feel in a jiffy. I honestly wish more apps on the market would allow for this deep level of customization as it makes the app feel like it's truly made for just for you, and you certainly won't get this in Hangouts or the scaled down Textra SMS.

Moving onward to functionality, Chomp SMS is loaded with powerful functions and features that are both flexible and convenient for any level of user. Quick reply and compose windows offer an efficient means to rapidly communicate on the go, while still maintaining great functionality within the confines of the small windows. Scheduled messages can go out at specific times or dates and delayed sending offers a timed exit button in case you wish to exit a reply in a flash. Long pressing on a contact pulls up a menu with several options to call, assign custom notifications, delete, send to email, pin to top and blacklist, my personal favorite for blocking spam and random lunatics. Quick-Pick Contacts & Groups is a great solution to quickly organize multiple contacts to group send messages in seconds, allowing you to play the role of town crier in a moment's notice. There is a character & SMS counter which displays how many texts are being sent at once, along with how many characters are used out of a possible 160, or 70 for Unicode. You may email a conversation easily or use file transfer to send it to local storage or several other media options, as well. The feature list is staggering in Chomp SMS for such a small package and is just too comprehensive to list every single thing this amazing SMS and MMS workhorse is capable of completely.

Whether you are a veteran message master or simply enjoy custom settings and loads of options in your SMS app, Chomp SMS packs everything you will ever need at your disposal into a compact and relatively fast package. If you are using an older device with severe memory and performance issues, I would probably suggest taking a solid look at Textra SMS to gain the extra efficiency, which is very similar and utilizes fewer resources. For those who want it all for a very fair price in an easy to manage package with all the trimmings on the technology tree, look no further than Chomp SMS as I highly recommend this app to the mass majority.

Pros:

• A stylish and attractive SMS and MMS solution.
• Staggering amount of customization and options.
• Offers unique and efficient ways of communication.
• Feature set versus performance is better than most.

Cons:

• Possible performance issues on older devices.

Reviewer rating:
Device/OS used: Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7 2012 / KitKat v4.4.4, Lollipop v5.1.1

Purchase at Google Play
Purchase at Amazon
Mobilism: chomp SMS v7.20 [Pro]