Review of the SMS Commander App for Android
What Does SMS Commander Do?
SMS Commander is a free and very small app that allows you to do a lot of things on your Android phone via text messaging. Find out everything about the app including its design, features, and the performance issues I encountered using the app.
Design (3 out of 5)
The main interface of SMS Commander was similar to that of Any Cut. When you start up SMS Commander, the first thing you have to do is set a four digit pass code. Make sure you write this pass code down somewhere and don’t forget it– once I set my pass code, the app wouldn’t let me reset it. Applications similar to SMS Commander sent emails containing the pass code, but since SMS Commander doesn’t collect email addresses, there’s no way to retrieve your pass code if you ever lose it.
After you have your pass code set, SMS Commander takes you to a dark screen with four commands on it: get location, loud ring, silence, and vibrate. When you hover over any of these commands, SMS Commander gives an explanation of them on the bottom of the page. The explanation SMS Commander gives isn’t too great, so I’ll explain it here:
When you want to use SMS Commander, you have to start up a new text message. The first thing you need to do is type in your pass code, because without your pass code, SMS Commander will ignore your commands completely. Once you have your pass code typed, select any of the four commands, and press send. You can either send this text message to yourself, or to someone else’s phone, provided they have SMS Commander installed, and you have their pass code. When you send ‘get location’, SMS Commander will send back a text message with your current location. ‘Silence’ silences your phone, ‘vibrate’ puts your phone on vibrate, and ’loud ring’ raises your ringer– it’s that simple.
Convenience of Features (2 out of 5)
Frankly, I was kind of disappointed with SMS Commander’s performance. The main idea of the application is great– with SMS Commander, you can track a child with the get location command. SMS Commander would have been fine, if only it actually worked. When I tested SMS Commander, I had a hard time even getting my pass code set. SMS Commander would suddenly crash, and it would take a few tries to start it up again.
Because of SMS Commander’s spontaneous crashing, I was only able to test the ‘get location’ command (the others wouldn’t even work). When I sen the ‘get location’ text message, SMS Commander sent me a text message back in a minute or two containing my location. I thought that was pretty handy, especially if you have a child with SMS Commander on his or her phone.
The Bottom Line (2 out of 5)
SMS Commander, although it has a strong idea behind it, is still quite buggy and crashes frequently. The only thing it’s good for at the moment is receiving locations, and even that takes a little while. Until SMS Commander’s developers work out the kinks of this program, I’d recommend other similar apps like Force Dial to take care of your SMS-commanding needs.
References
Android Market, https://market.android.com/details?id=sms.commander.paid
