comprese le righe mancanti (conteggio zero) quando si utilizza GROUP BY

Potresti creare un tavolo con tutte le ore e unirti ai tavoli:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `hours` (
  `hour` int(11) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
INSERT INTO `hours` (`hour`) VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12), (13), (14), (15), (16), (17), (18), (19), (20), (21), (22), (23);

SELECT hours.hour, count( SMS_MESSAGES.ID ) 
FROM hours
LEFT JOIN SMS_MESSAGES ON ( hours.hour = HOUR( SMS_MESSAGES.smsDate ) ) 
GROUP BY 1