Recently I got my LG Optimus G Pro review unit and was kinda frustrated with the built-in SMS app. There’s nothing wrong with it per se, but it was clearly made for Korean users with the messaging app turning texts with foreign characters into MMS messages. Guess that’s not surprising since the Optimus G Pro I got is offered by LG U+ (Korean operator) and their users don’t necessarily care about this sort of issues.
So I had to find a third-party alternative… and I tried Messages +. Soon afterwards, I installed all other apps made by Contacts Plus team, including Contacts +, Call Log +, Dialer +, Merge + and Emoji +. What they managed to do is make a viable alternative to the built-in phone software. And I love it that much that I’m thinking some bigger company should acquire them to differentiate their Android smartphones from those sold by other companies.
There’s nothing spectacular about the mentioned apps – they look nice and are fine-tuned to work as they should, allowing users to quickly swipe between Contacts, Messages and Call Log, while the Dialer is always accessible from the bottom right of the screen. It’s that simple and as they say it – it just works.
So which company would be interested in buying Contacts Plus team? I’ve no idea but I’m sure every single handset maker out there should take a look. Let’s face it – most Android smartphones look alike and it’s getting harder and harder for consumers to differentiate between different devices running Google’s mobile platform. At the end, it all comes to delivering a better user experience. Samsung realized this when it decided to preload SwiftKey’s virtual keyboard on its Galaxy S4. Some other handset maker could acquire these guys and make its built-in Contacts, SMS and Phone apps looks slightly different. What do you say?
Disclaimer: No one paid or asked me to write about Contact Plus team’s apps. I just like them that much. 😉