Invi beats Google to SMS integration in their web based messaging Service
Do you guys remember when we announced that Invi Messaging was available? It launched back in November of 2012, so I am not surprised if you don’t. We had a hand in part of the early development of the app and were quite excited about it. like most messaging apps though, it lost a little bit of steam since it required your friends and family to have Invi installed to massage them. There was the perk that it ran over Wi-Fi and your data connection and made it easy for global users to be in touch.
The app its self was beautiful. The inbox showed images and names/numbers right along side the number of messages. You could see images and watch YouTube videos while still messaging your friend. It is an extremely rich application. It missed a critical component at launch and even over the next few major updates. It still didn’t let you use the app as a stand alone SMS replacement app. Well, I am happy to report that a recent update to Invi has since solved that issue.
On June 7th Invi updated and included SMS support. This is a big deal since we are still all waiting for Google to include this service in Hangouts. Until that happens, Invi might be your ticket to a much richer media centric messaging service for SMS. For instance, have any of your friends sent you a webpage link in a text?  If that answer is yes, then why not see a webpage preview with an image like you would on Google+.  Same thing with YouTube videos. Rather than have to open up YouTube to watch the video, you can hit play and it opens at the top of the message thread and you can still chat.
It really is quite the beautiful messaging experience. There are a few settings that have stuck around, like the optional black theme. Again, one of those things that Google just refuses to do on their own. Setting your own personal cover photo and chat photo and the notification sound. Not to mention the Emoji support to make messaging fun of course. In the new SMS settings you can change the tone again for text messages and have it mirror you SMS data base. it will also block double notifications from your standard or stock SMS client and just notify you via Invi.
The service still has a little ways to go before it really takes on a major player role, but with the most recent SMS integration, it is well on its way. I have high expectations for Invi after this update and dare I say it, Google should pick them up and integrate them to Hangouts.
Invi is a free app and you can give it a trial run at your leisure through the Play Store link below. Enjoy and be sure to let us know what you think of it, especially if you tested it out when it launched. I know it has become my prefered choice for an SMS inbox since it updated.
