Comparison

Message Makeover for iMessage vs Tacendum

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Message Makeover for iMessage

Tired of plain iMessages? This app lets you customize your message bubbles with vibrant colors and unique fonts. Make your conversations stand out with personalized backgrounds and text colors, and preview your creations before sending.

Highlights
  • Custom iMessage background color
  • Custom iMessage font color
  • Simple and intuitive interface
  • Message preview functionality
  • Direct launch to Messages app
  • Wide range of color options
Features
Read full description

Message Makeover for iMessage is ON SALE celebrating our launch! Grab it now! Tired of the old blue and grey iMessages? Look no further. Message Makeover for iMessage is bringing beautiful messaging to iPod Touch, iPad and iPhone. Be the envy of all your friends by sending them bold, colorful messages that they can only dream of. Features - Custom iMessage Background Color - Custom iMessage Font Color - Beautifully designed, simple interface - Preview your message before you want to send! - Launch Messages app directly from the app - Vast array of Color Choices - If we don't have it, ask us and we'll add it! - Best of all, our beautiful iMessages are absolutely 100% free to send and receive! Why wait? Download Message Makeover for iMessage today and start composing not only messages but pieces of fine artwork that will make messaging a joy to do AND look at!

About

Tacendum

This app offers end-to-end encrypted private messaging, rooms, and calls without requiring any personal sign-up information. It prioritizes user privacy with features like disappearing messages and screenshot notifications.

Highlights
  • End-to-end encrypted chats, rooms, and calls
  • No sign-up required (phone number, email, username, password)
  • Disappearing messages with customizable timers
  • Screenshot disclosure and screen recording protection
  • App lock with decoy option
  • Optional findability via ID sharing or linked credentials
Features
Read full description

Some conversations are just between the people in them. Tacendum is end-to-end encrypted messaging, rooms and calls for iPhone. There is no sign-up: no phone number, no email, no username, no password required. A key created on your phone the first time the app opens is the account. Nobody can look you up unless you choose it — there is no directory and no search. You hand your ID to someone yourself, normally by scanning a code in person; or link an email or a username in Settings, switch on findability, and someone who already knows it can find you. Each is optional and revocable, and none becomes a login. WHAT IT DOES — One-to-one chats, encrypted end to end with the Signal protocol (libsignal). Edit a message, delete it for everyone, reply, react, mention someone by name. Send photos, files, voice notes, or a place you have chosen to share. — Rooms: one conversation for up to twelve people. Only the person who made a room can add or remove anyone, and only they can hand a new arrival the history from before — deliberately, and the room is told when they do. Every room message is encrypted separately for every member; the room's name and everything said in it are hidden from us. — Calls: one-to-one voice and video, end-to-end encrypted, with the set-up riding inside the same encrypted envelope as a message. A room can hold a voice call of up to six people. The first call with someone new is relayed by default, so a stranger does not learn your IP address; one switch keeps every call that way. — Disappearing messages, with a timer you choose per conversation. — Screenshots are disclosed, always. iPhones do not let any app block a screenshot, so instead of pretending, Tacendum tells: take one inside a conversation and the other person is told, in that conversation. No setting turns that off. While the screen is being recorded, mirrored or AirPlayed, conversations are hidden until it stops. — Safety numbers. Every pair of people has one number, and both see the same one. If someone's key changes, Tacendum stops and says so before you send anything else. — App lock: a passcode on top of the phone's own, with an auto-lock delay. One code, two doors — your code opens your conversations, and the same code entered backwards opens a decoy instead: invented people, unreadable messages, while the real ones stay sealed. There is no second secret to remember or to be made to give up. — Blocking and reporting. Blocking is yours alone and invisible to the blocked. Reporting sends us only what you explicitly select, and the report screen says exactly what leaves your phone. WHAT ISN'T THERE No feed. No directory. No ads, no trackers. The app never asks for your contacts — there is no address-book upload. No archive: your history lives on your phone and nowhere else, and undelivered ciphertext clears from our servers within thirty days. And no recovery of messages or keys, by design: the key never leaves your phone, so if you lose the phone, its history is gone. A linked email can win back only which devices are yours and whether you can be found — never a message. We cannot restore the rest — that is the point. WHAT ENCRYPTION DOESN'T COVER Encryption hides what you said, not that you said it. Who each room message goes to is visible to us, and the privacy policy at tacendum.com/privacy says exactly what our servers can still see. We would rather tell you than have you assume. SOURCE Tacendum is free software under the AGPL-3.0 license. The complete Corresponding Source for this exact build is published at github.com/MiranaTechs/Tacendum, tag v1.0-b24. Tacendum requires iOS 15.1 or later. Terms: tacendum.com/terms. Privacy: tacendum.com/privacy. Support: tacendum.com/support or hello@tacendum.com.

Screenshots

Message Makeover for iMessage4 screens
Tacendum4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Tacendum at Free against Message Makeover for iMessage's $0.99. Tacendum also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.5) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 35 months). Message Makeover for iMessage's advantage is ratings volume (35 vs 1) and chart position (#64 vs unranked). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Tacendum is free to download; Message Makeover for iMessage costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Tacendum holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Message Makeover for iMessage has 35 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Message Makeover for iMessage ships an update every 35 months, Tacendum every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Message Makeover for iMessage versus Tacendum: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMessage Makeover for iMessageTacendum
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating3.5 (35 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews15.2% of reviews—
Number of ratings35 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 35 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank#64 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS10.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB62 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperAndrew HalliganMirana Technologies Inc.

Customer experience

Message Makeover for iMessage

All ratings35 ratings
Positive62.9%
Neutral5.7%
Negative31.4%
Written reviews66 reviews
Positive15.2%
Neutral9.1%
Negative75.8%

Tacendum

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Message Makeover for iMessage

Reported bugs

40 issues
  • Letters too large
  • Not compatible with later iOS versions
  • Bubbles not same size
  • Cannot receive messages
  • Has to write message from app only
Show 35 more
  • No change from regular default colors when replying
  • Doesn't work
  • Doesn't send anything
  • Sends as a picture message
  • Cannot see words after typing and pasting
  • Sent as an image rather than a text/iMessage
  • Doesn't work
  • Messages show as pictures
  • Words are really tiny
  • Sends as a picture
  • Can't read
  • Doesn't work properly
  • Takes a lot of time
  • Has to paste and copy
  • Creates an image to copy
  • Leaves the app, goes into iMessages, and then pastes
  • Message doesn't send
  • Says it's an attachment, not message
  • Can't send it out
  • Fonts are a little small
  • No option not to have a shadow
  • Text size needs to be normal iPhone text size
  • Bubbles need to be resized to fit like the iPhone
  • Text is way too close to the bubbles borders
  • Won't let you send it
  • Can only get the color bubble to change
  • Fonts don't work
  • Shadows don't work
  • Can't figure out how to use it
  • Don't know where the "pasteboard" is
  • Text isn't so small
  • Comes out as a cute message image
  • Is a copy & paste app
  • Truthfully changes the color of your font
  • I want an app that will give me choices directly from iMessage

Requested features

11 requests
  • Set size of font
  • Change default colors
  • Integrated into iMessage
  • Actual message bubble change
  • Larger font size
Show 6 more
  • Font style and size choices
  • Option to not have a shadow
  • Normal iPhone text size
  • Bubbles resized to fit iPhone
  • More font options
  • Direct choices from iMessage

Tacendum

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Message Makeover for iMessage

No in-app purchases

None

Tacendum

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Message Makeover for iMessage free?
Message Makeover for iMessage costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tacendum free?
Tacendum is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Message Makeover for iMessage or Tacendum?
Tacendum is rated higher. Message Makeover for iMessage averages 3.5 out of 5 from 35 ratings, while Tacendum averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Message Makeover for iMessage or Tacendum have ads?
Neither Message Makeover for iMessage nor Tacendum shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Message Makeover for iMessage or Tacendum?
Message Makeover for iMessage ships an update every 35 months, and Tacendum every 2 weeks. Most recently, Message Makeover for iMessage was updated on November 10, 2026 and Tacendum on November 6, 2026.

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