Right -- despite all the references to what "malicious apps" might be able to do, all of these permissions are necessary for a legitimate SMS app to do what it does, along with the few extra things that Handcent does. But none of that, as far as I can tell, indicates that someone at Handcent (or Verizon) is going to be intercepting your messages and examining the content, which I think is what Robn was concerned about.

Anyway, thanks for the detail. If I ever get more into texting than I currently am, I may look into Handcent. It was interesting to note the info about disabling keylock: "Allows the app to disable the keylock and any associated password security. A legitimate example of this is the phone disabling the keylock when receiving an incoming phone call, then re-enabling the keylock when the call is finished." That sounds like Handcent would do what Robn is interested in, unlock the phone as soon as a text comes in.