“awfull, all my messages appear 3 times now and its full of ads .. its a nightmare i wish i didnt upgrade”
Independent automated assessment · 6 signal sources · 520 reviews scanned · analyzed 2026-10-04.
Messages: SMS Texting App
Apps SpecialsMessages App to stay connected securely with your friends and family using Ap…
3.9 ★188,865 ratings
10M+Downloads
4+Age rating
—App size
Free · In-app purchasesIn-app purchases
About this app
Messages App to stay connected securely with your friends and family using Apps Specials easy-to-use SMS and MMS messaging app. Join over 25 million users already benefiting from our smart, fast, and secure SMS message app.
Using a built-in SMS Organizer to organize all text messages, chats or conversations automatically into Personal, Transactions, OTPs and Offers categories.
Get benefits from the messages app to enhance your SMS text messaging experience. Express yourself with emojis and stickers, schedule message, block unwanted contacts, and backup & restore your conversations and much more.
▌Here are the Features of the SMS, MMS Messaging App:
🤖 AI Buddy Your smart assistant inside the messaging app! Whether it’s work, study, or daily tasks, AI Buddy makes conversations more helpful, productive, and fun — all in one place.…
Preview
Real screenshots from the store listing.
Independent evidence report
The evidence behind this assessment
This is where the page changes from an app-store listing into an evidence report: findings, important reviews, pricing and a dated history.
Which version this describes
When we ran this analysis, and what the store lists now.
This analysis describes version 2.7.3 of the app (the version number recorded inside the package we inspected), analyzed 2026-10-04 . The app may have changed since.
The store currently lists version 2.7.3, updated 2026-10-01.
What we measured
Each line is a measurement published as a measurement, never a verdict.
Each line is a measurement, published as a measurement. Where we have not looked, the line says so rather than reading as a zero.
Developer replies to reviews
Replies to at least 1 review in 20
Price in the store description
States no price and billing period
Cancelling, in the store description
Does not say how to cancel
Themes reported by reviewers
1 theme reported
Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.
Five-star share of ratings
Under 65% five-star
Arithmetic on the stores' own published rating counts. It says nothing about why the ratings fall where they do.
In the package we scanned
From the package we downloaded and read — version 2.7.3, scanned 2026-09-20.
Permissions Android classifies as dangerous
6 or more requested
Counted against the eighteen permissions listed in collect-package.ts. A dangerous permission is one Android asks the user to grant; requesting one is not itself a finding.
Analytics or tracking SDKs in the scanned package
1–2 found
Advertising SDKs in the scanned package
3–9 found
Counted as distinct SDKs in the package we scanned. One mediation bundle can contribute several, so this is not a count of advertisers.
Graded bands · predicate set 1.4 · how these are measured
What the analysis found
App-specific findings, grouped by what each one rests on. How they are graded lives on its own page.
The catch list 2
Charges we publish at a strength we stand behind: measured from an artefact, agreed by independent sources, or reported by enough users to clear that charge's own published bar.
Multiple ad networks bundled
The package embeds several distinct advertising or mediation SDKs — a stack built for ad volume, not for a single house ad.
What we saw: Bundles 8 distinct ad networks / mediation SDKs: Amazon Publisher Services, AppLovin MAX, Google Mobile Ads (AdMob / Ad Manager), InMobi and 4 more
Reported by users: Aggressive ad load
Advertising volume or placement that interrupts normal use: ads between every action, unskippable or forced full-screen ads.
What we saw: Raised by 33 distinct reviewers — 6.3% of the 520 reviews scanned on this store leg (Google Play).
Positive evidence 2
Things this app does right, published at the same strengths as the catch list.
States a price, or offers a one-time purchase
The app's own text offers a one-time or lifetime purchase, or reviewers report that the price is stated clearly.
What we saw: Offers a one-time or lifetime purchase: "One-Time Purchase"
Developer says data deletion can be requested
The developer's data-safety disclosure on the store states that users can request deletion of their data, or the app's own text offers a way to delete the account. This restates what the developer declares; it is not a test of whether deletion works. Apple publishes no equivalent disclosure, so on an Apple-only listing only the app's own text can support it.
What we saw: The developer's store data-safety disclosure states that data deletion can be requested; we have not seen a deletion control in the app's own text
One source only — shown, not confirmed 2
A single kind of evidence. We publish these because withholding them would be the bigger distortion, and we do not treat any of them as a finding we stand behind.
In the app's own text: Trial terms not stated in the app's own text
The app's own screens offer a free trial without stating, beside it, what happens when the trial ends. Read this as context rather than as a charge: renewal terms are normally shown on the store's purchase sheet instead, which we cannot see, and we can only observe one kind of evidence for this — so it is shown, but never counted as a charge.
What we saw: Offers a free trial ("Free Trial") with no renewal price, renewal date or auto-renew notice anywhere in the app's own text
In the app's own text: Countdown-timer purchase pressure
The app's own purchase copy attaches a deadline to buying — a countdown, 'offer ends in', 'limited time' — or ships a countdown view on a purchase-screen layout.
What we saw: Deadline pressure in the app's own copy: "Offer Ends in:"
Highlighted reviews
Representative public review excerpts shown as user reports, not Appworthy audit evidence.
“couldn't even get through the initial set up of the app. before I could even begin to sync messages or do anything I was bombarded with full screen ads. after closing a few of them I was then hit with a survey that was not able to be…”
“The second that you open the app your bombarded with all these ads popping up threatening that viruses are on the phone. you've been infected. Quick download this app. That's a completely messed up Ad to allow not only on your App, let…”
Assessment & version history
App changes and Appworthy events in one timeline.
Store listing updated to version 2.7.3.
What this app sells
Useful store-disclosed pricing, kept below the app listing.
Items shown0
Lowest—
Highest—
Google Play does not publish per-purchase prices.