textPlus, a text messaging app that’s powered by GOGII, has just hit the App Store. textPlus lets any iPhone or iPod Touch send free text messages to any cell number by using in-app advertising to cover its costs. There is no limit on how many text messages you can send per month, it’s just a matter of getting WiFi, 3G or an Edge connection. GOGII was one of the first companies that was funded by iFund, the partnership between venture capital firm KPCB and Apple, which was announced at the Apple SDK roadmap event.
With version 2.0 of textPlus, GOGII is announcing the availability of textPlus usernames, which can effectively serve as a stand-in for a phone number, which is great for iPod Touch users. Your friends can send standard text messages to you from any phone, simply by sending a text to the shortcode 60611 that leads off with your username followed the rest of their message (so a text to me would look like “DanielBru Hi are you coming to the movie tonight?”). textPlus also supports group messaging, though someone with the app installed needs to initiate the conversation (the other participants in the chat don’t necessarily need it installed and can use regular SMS).
One of the biggest upsides to textPlus is that you can send text messages internationally at no cost at all — the one requirement, is that you have a textPlus username. And of course, with iPhone OS 3.0, and push notifications, you’ll get a notification each time someone sends you a new text message. GOGII’s goal with textPlus is to make the texting functionality much better then what Apple has already developed.
After playing with textPlus over the last few days, I can see where the success of version one came from — textPlus is very to use, and the ads don’t really get in the way. The only thing I fear is that GOGII doesn’t have any immediate plans to support picture and video messaging, which iPhone users on AT&T recently got.
textPlus currently supports the following carriers; AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Alltel, US Cellular, Virgin Mobile, Nextel, Boost, Cellular One, Dobson, nTelos, Cellular South, CellCom, evol, ECIT, RINA, Bluegrass, Cox, Inland Cellular, West Central Wireless, Centennial, EKN, RCC, and Immix/Pc Management.
You can get textPlus on the App Store today at no cost. [iTunes Link]
You would think this would have been rejected (or should I say… not approved) due to it “duplicating a function of the phone.”
yeah for reals, anyway gvoice does this for me already on my rightfully jailbroken iphone
plus, my contacts just use my gvoice number not some weird workaround nobody is gonna bother to do just say hi and I get them instantly with gmail.
This is in many ways Blackberry Messenger for the iphone. It would be great if Apple included an iChat application on the iphone that mimicked BBM.
ping! is more in line with blackberry messenger… this has significantly broader usage in that it can send to any mobile number, meaning the recipient doesn’t need an iPhone OS device… the only problem is that it doesn’t work with some carriers outside the U.S. whereas Ping! does… looks like something to keep an eye on though
With usernames, much like Ping!, textPlus app users can reach each other no matter what!
Ping! is definately no BBM. It was cool at first but I’m not going to tell my iphone buddies to pay for a messenger app or settle with an lite version to chat with them. BBM is great because it’s free and packed with features (ping will have them soon) but I bet apple will have some type of free ichat in the future for iphone/ipod buddies.
Textplus is an awesome app because it can help people save up to 20 dollars per month on sms and a chat client (that’s always on) for iphone buddies that’s free! Ping! was a cool idea at first but Many iphone owners don’t want to buy apps and I don’t want to tell my friends that they can settle with a lite version with lesser features.
I actually purchased Textnow for 4.99 because it has a much nicer UI with no ads but I think I’m going to go back to textplus because I’m really liking the free business plan and it will draw in more users in the long run. The only big downside with textplus right now is no pic trading and it doesn’t support metropcs which may or may not be a notable carrier here in the states (don’t know anyone with them yet)
Does this app work in the UK
Free texting? Count us in.