Tired Of Boring IM Apps? Invi Is A Beautiful & Feature-Packed App You Need To Try [Android 2.3+]
Text messaging is by no means new, but it's been gaining popularity over the past few years, slowly replacing regular phone calls for many users. SMS messages have been popular for years, but free texting apps that use your data plan are a great substitute. However, most only let you text with friends who also use the app. Invi is a beautiful messaging app for Android (iOS and Windows Phone versions planned) that changes all that.
How to Prevent Text and Instant Messaging from Smothering a Relationship
Ladies and gents, ever heard of the old phrase, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder?" It's not just some silly cliché. In fact, it's quite possibly more relevant in this day and age than it ever has been. Why? Simple: It's nearly impossible to be absent anywhere these days. Unfortunately, constant communication kills relationships - emphasis on the word "constant". However, by looking past technology and into human interaction, there are ways to prevent text and instant messaging from smothering a relationship.
Stop Spam Texts Forever with These Tips
Spam texts are dumb. I could have provided a much more detailed introductory sentence, but I believe we can all agree here. Ever had this kind of moment? "Oh man! A new text message! Wonder who it could be-- NO I DO NOT WANT THIS OBVIOUSLY FAKE LOAN." We're still in the relatively early days of spam texting, so it's going to take a little while longer for us to instantly recognize them as well as we recognize a Nigerian prince scam. Here are some tips to stop them from hitting your inbox.
Send It Later: 4 Useful SMS Scheduling Apps To Text At Just The Right Time [Android]
MS messages have become one of the most common forms of communication. They can also be extremely flexible, with scheduling and delivery reports. While delivery reports are usually included in stock SMS apps, scheduling is not. It would be great to have that ability, so you can easily send regular reminders to friends and coworkers, wish someone a happy birthday right at midnight, or otherwise pre-type a message that you want to send later because you know that you will be busy. There are plenty of apps available for Android which can take care of this for you.
Pinger Desktop - The Best Desktop Texting Application [Mac OSX & Windows]
Over a year ago, I introduced MakeUseOf readers to Textfree. Since then, a lot has changed. I still use Textfree to this very day, and the entire application has been rebranded as Pinger. If you didn't get to read my article or don't know what Pinger or Textfree can do for you, it's a great way to send and receive free texts in the US, Canada, and 30 additional countries.
The Best Ways To Send A Free SMS Online
In an era where smartphone ownership is becoming the majority, it’s hard to imagine someone who can’t (or won’t) send out text messages. When was the last time you knew someone who didn’t have a text messaging plan on their mobile? Or better yet, when was the last time someone told you "don’t text me because I've hit my limit!"? You probably don’t remember. And yet, there are still millions of people out there who don’t have access to free text messaging.
Make And Monitor Your Phone Text Messages With MightyText For Chrome
It's a little more "instant" than e-mail but not as intrusive as a phone call. It's convenient, but it's not annoying if managed right. And most of all, it's one of the most highly addictive forms of communication in the world. It's for all of these reasons that I went out in search of a way to continue sending text messages with my phone even when my phone is nowhere near me, and that's when I stumbled across the MightyText extension for Chrome.
Read Text Messages Automatically With SMS Popup [Android]
There are a number of great reasons why you might want to read the contents of an SMS automatically. If you use the regular message notifications, all you see when a text message arrives, is an icon in the message bar, whereas tools like SMS Popup can let you view the contents of the message straight away, without even touching your phone. Useful, right? Quite.
Better Than Text Messages & Free - WhatsApp For Android Reviewed
A moment of introspection, please: What do you do more often - call people using your phone, or text them? I would bet it's the latter. For many people, texting is more convenient than calling. It's discrete, so you can do it on the bus (unless you happen to be the driver); it's asynchronous, so the other person doesn't have to be immediately available, and more.
Turn Your iPhone Or Android Phone Into A Walkie Talkie With Voxer
If you’ve been searching for a cross-platform means of communication using voice messages, text and images that works on both internal wifi and cellular networks, then Voxer is the app for you. Voxer is designed to be a push-to-talk (PTT) walkie-talkie replacement that works on both local and global networks.
How To Setup Free SMS Alerts When Your Website Is Down
Many services offer website uptime monitoring and SMS alerts when your website goes down, but most of them charge money for this service. Using a clever Google Docs trick and the SMS capability built into Google Calendar, you can quickly set up free text message alerts when your website goes down. This script will try to connect to one or more websites every five minutes. If it can’t connect, you’ll receive a notification by email and text message so you can deal with the problem immediately.
GVnotifier: A Simple Google Voice Client [Windows]
Use Google Voice from your Windows desktop without leaving your browser open. With its chat-like interface and instant notifications, GVNotifier is the best way to send free SMS messages in Windows – assuming, of course, you live in the USA. You can do this from your web browser, or using the Google Voice extension for Chrome, but there is no official desktop app for Google Voice at this time.
Sexting & The College Student [INFOGRAPHIC]
MakeUseOf has previously published several infographics on texting, such as when texting celebrated its 19th birthday, when we showed teens and their texting habits, and how SMS messaging is changing the world. But one texting-related subject that I haven't approached yet (mainly because I didn't want my boss to fire me for turning MakeUseOf into Hustler magazine) is "sexting".
GroupMe Makes It Incredibly Simple To SMS Your Group Of Friends [U.S. Only]
Email is slow, but texting two people the same message every time is also annoying. GroupMe, a group messaging app that has got clients for all major mobile platforms, and is just the right thing to solve your communication problems. Not only is GroupMe quite a lot of fun, it also works for almost everyone, not just those that own smartphones.
Send Text Messages From Your Browser With MightyText & MobiTexter [Android]
One of the main differences between a phone call, text message and messenger bird is the so-called deadline of reply. That's in an ideal world. In the real world, people forget their cellphones at home, or are prone to ignore them in favor of some other — more interesting, or more pressing — activity. That's one motive behind synchronizing text messages with your computer.
TextPort: Send Free Text Messages To US Phones, Get The Reply Via Email
Easily send a text message to any phone in the United States, free of charge, regardless of where you live. You will get the responses in your email, and can even respond to responses using email. It's all at TextPort, a site that makes sending SMS messages from your computer easy. It offers a few other worthwhile tools as well, including a reverse number lookup.
Happy 19th Birthday Text Messaging [INFOGRAPHIC]
It’s hard to believe but it has been just over 19 years since the first text message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone, and 18 years since the first phones were produced that allowed people to send text messages to one another. These days, text messaging is so common and widespread (especially among the younger generation) that it is hard to think of a time when it did not exist.
Try Free Group Texting and Events With Capsule
What do you do when you want to invite a decent amount of people to a private event? Do you post out invites? Ring everyone? Probably not. Most people these days would probably say they used Facebook. But what if your friends include people who hate Facebook or just don't use it? Or what if you're that person? What do you use then? Well, we have a solution for you.
Send Text Messages From Your iPhone/iTouch or Desktop With Textfree
One of my biggest pet peeves is having to constantly check through text messages while I'm on my desktop or laptop at my desk. I've always thought it was be so much easier to have texts forward to one of my instant messengers, but a concept like that doesn't exactly exist (or at least not to my knowledge). We've shed light before on how you can replace your texting plan with a few free apps, but Textfree from Pinger really goes a step beyond that.
Make Your Dumb Phone Smart With ifttt
With If This Then That (ifttt) and SMS I can teach my dumb phone all kinds of smart tricks, from updating social networks to adding events to my calendar. What makes ifttt so good at educating your dumb phone is SMS messaging. Here are a few ways you can use it to your advantage from your dumb phone.