I fully agree with Erel, being afraid that you should create a very "comprehensive" apk and maybe it is even not enough. I am in very similar situation now. My app was just about to be launched but now I decided to never launch it. It has a (nearly) full functionality with inbox, sent box, draft box, filters, blacklist, call blocker, send new message, contacts etc... It is not a small snippet but a real application, and for me it can be a good replacement for native sms app. However, as Erel said, I think very few people will "want to switch from Android Messaging app or Hangouts to any other SMS handling app", or to my app. If I want to set it as default SMS and replace the native one, it is just because it is my own product. I am quite sure nobody wants to do so
@
Slacker: Yes, you are correct when saying "Security should be a middle line between imposed restrictions and user's knowledge", but it seems that the majority of users cannot be as knowledgeable as developers (I mean, in term of "playing" with apps). Hence for the sake of safety, Google wants to restrict the users to choose only one among 2 options (1) the stock Messaging or (2) the third party one, which clearly has less chance, like my app. By doing so, they are pretty sure that only the native app can be used
You can PM me your email, I can send my apk to you to test (and tell me please, if you want to replace your stock Message with mine
)