# GrapheneOS Messages app

5 Hacker News commenters recommended GrapheneOS Messages app and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free messaging app for GrapheneOS, rewritten with Jetpack Compose and Material You to match the system UI. Most common caveat: RCS is still not supported.

## Why people recommend it

- Modern Jetpack Compose and Material You (2 comments): "Good news! GrapheneOS has ported Messaging to kotlin, jetpack compose, and material you." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49667727)) "it definitely looks nicer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49667212))

## What people warn about

- Bugs with contact names and links (2 comments): "I had a scary bug on an older version where for months the contact names didnt match the actual senders/recipients." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49665077)) "It's all 'links' (phone numbers, URLs etc) that are broken." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49670135))
- Feels basic and lacks search (2 comments): "the messaging app felt like baby's first texting app" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49664665)) "still no search fonction ?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49672223))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [WhatsApp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/whatsapp.md): 300 recommend
- [iMessage](https://hackerapproved.com/p/imessage.md): 100 recommend
- [Conversations XMPP client](https://hackerapproved.com/p/conversations.md): 31 recommend
- [Tether (iMessage and SMS on Linux)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tether.md): 22 recommend
- [Google Messages](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-messages.md): 12 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "GrapheneOS Messages app", https://hackerapproved.com/p/grapheneos-messages-app/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).