InkMessage is a cleaned UI for E-ink based on QUIK messages. It focuses on high contrast and simplicity suitable for E-ink displays, while retaining the powerful features of its predecessors. It is a fork of QUIK, which itself is a continuation of QKSMS.
Features:
Optimized for E-ink: High contrast interface and simplified visuals.
Black and white theme throughout
Incoming messages solid black border, white background.
Outgoing messages thinner, dashed border - a real delight.
Smarter message sorting — groups organized cleanly, unknown numbers separated
New modern themed audio player, not that tragic one before with a png nof waves in the background.
Clearer thumbnail images, that’s how Mudita’s works
Copy + forward full messages
Scheduled Messages
Message Backup
Message Blocking and Archiving
Voice Messages
Attachments of any type of file
Message Sorting
Delayed Sending
From me:
I love this app. It was transformative in being able to message people effectively. I like the layout/interface and functionality. The biggest thing was that it supports more mms formats, including video previews and mms audio files. The audio mms is important as I have premium voicemail through my service provider so I don’t have to worry about logging into my voicemail service to listen to new messages. It also has backup options and message scheduling.
I’ve been using this as my default messenger now for a few months. While I appreciate the minimalism of the built in SMS app, there’s just too many inconveniences when receiving videos and links, or when I want to send one text with multiple images AND text—all things I can do in InkMessage.
This makes the stock SMS app shipped by Mudita look simply shameful. It’s mind-boggling that Mudita tried to create everything themselves from scratch instead of leveraging open source projects like QUIK. The only four things I’m missing with this fork of QUIK are:
RCS, but obviously that’s simply not possible for anyone right now due to Google’s choices (no need to beat a dead horse sigh)
InkMessage can request read-receipts from people you text, but it doesn’t seem to acknowledge read receipts from people who text you (if someone who is requesting read receipts sends an SMS to my kompakt running InkMessage, they don’t get info on delivery or message being read)
taking a photo from the message compose screen doesn’t work due to permissions (likely Mudita’s fault and not fixable anytime soon)
no way to create an allow-list instead of a block-list (upstream QUIK is adding this, so hopefully it will make it into InkMessage eventually – see github.com/lamdanAmiti/InkMessage/issues/1)
Thanks to the dev for the work they did adapting QUIK to look nice on the Kompakt. It makes SMS/MMS actually usable.
@michalplaza You need to use a custom launcher for that. If you like the Kompakt’s stock launcher and don’t want to add too much, my suggestion would be Katapult by gezimos (thread or website). That’s what I use, though inkOS (by the same dude) is awesome if you’re looking for more complexity, customization, and features.
I’ve tried using Inkmessage a few times, but I always uninstall and go back to the stock sms app because basic things just DON’T work. The first time I downloaded it, I couldn’t send images. Everything else worked fine, but no matter what* no images would go through. Stock app sent images fine. Uninstalled.
Later I re-installed and I couldn’t get the “set as default sms pop-up” to go away, and the app was unusable. It crashed whenever I tried setting as default, I couldn’t even set up permissions. Uninstalled again went back to stock sms.. was miserable.
Last week I decided to try again! Got it set up, set as default, all permissions on. Notifications turned on. Sending images worked this time. It SEEMED fine for a few days. And now, I just don’t get notifications. I never know when I’ve got a text. I literally went through and checked every single thread to, notifs are on, its not in DND, yet the app doesn’t notify me. Restart phone, no change. Set it back to stock sms. Immediately get notifications. : (
I WANT to use this app but I just can’t! I unfortunately need to be notified of messages, lol has anyone else had random features of the app just not work suddenly? I can’t find any posts like this anywhere
I’ve switched to InkMessage in lieu of the stock SMS app. I think it is much nicer to use. My only gripe is that the bar on the main screen that toggles between All, Group, and Unknown is not well designed. The touch targets are too small, in my opinion. Otherwise its a great app.
Unfortunately not me. It has worked perfectly since I installed it a month ago. Have you made sure entered your carrier’s APN settings? Also, have you made sure you have InkMessage allowed to work as a background app? That should be done in both Duraspeed and Battery Optimizer.
Some great improvements on the stock app. I really appreciate that it has scheduled messaging, improved MMS support, delivery confirmations, and unread convos at the top of list.
Some areas for improvement:
Closing/opening the keyboard should not be a sliding animation. The screen change should happen instantaneously on eink screens.
The navigation bar on top is a little too small for the MK. This might be a good place to implement the components described by Mudita Mindful Design
The stock app is very well optimized for e-ink, especially when scrolling–no continuous scrolling, discrete state changes. I wish this app would adopt that with the settings menu, conversations list. I’ll probably stick with inkMessage for the time being because I need scheduled messages and backup options, but my user experience is generally superior in the stock app due to its bespoke Kompakt UI.
Thanks for your hard work, and for reading my feedback!
Upate: I ended up reverting to the stock application and uninstalling InkMessages. MuditaOS SMS is so much easier to read on the e-ink display and feels much snappier. Wish I could rename group chats and schedule messages, but it accomplishes its primary function much better for me.
Has anyone else not been able to successfully send audio messages? I updated my APN network settings, tried again, but it still comes through as a weird inaccessible file on the receiving end.
has anyone else had random features of the app just not work suddenly? I can’t find any posts like this anywhere