There does not seem to be really any good FOSS SMS apps. I really like the UI of Simple SMS by SimpleMobileTools but the group chats are so glitchy that I have no clue how that application is anyhing but an alpha release. Is there anything similar to Simple SMS that works? I know QKSMS got abandoned
SMS can’t do group chats but MMS can. Phones used to make distinctions (as did carriers, in their pricing) but these days apps pretend SMS groups exist and secret convert them into MMS whenever possible.
I think there are also a few implementations of apps trying to make groups work over plain SMS, but those are unreliable.
MMS sucks pretty bad. Google and a select few carriers are trying to move to RCS instead, but it’s not exactly gaining much progress. The lack of OS integration of RCS APIs certainly isn’t helping anyone either.