Over the past week the groovy research team (MrGroove and I) have spent some time looking over many of the different applications designed for sending free text messages from an iPhone or iPod touch.  With each app there was a few different criteria it had to meet in order to be considered.  Is the service free or inexpensive? Is the app itself free?  Is it easy to use? etc…

 

At the end of the day, of all the apps we looked at, textPlus came out on top.

 

Overview

The app textPlus is free to use and download as funding is provided through built-in advertisements that comfortably fit near the bottom of the page (a little annoying but not bad).  Everything done with the app is managed through it’s own shortcode network on the number 60611.  Conversations are managed from a conversation Window which allows you to store and archive virtually unlimited conversations.

 

Unlike conventional texting, through textPlus you can invite multiple people to join one conversation and textPlus will organize who is talking and send conversation updates via SMS to either the cell phone or textPlus application of those in the conversation.

 

 

The application has its own built-in contact manager, where you can store the name, email address, and phone number of people you talk to on textPlus.  You can also integrate your textPlus contacts with your stored contacts on your iPhone or iPod including contact photos.

 

There’s a lot more you can do with textPlus so let’s take a quick Screenshot tour of the product!

 

How To Set Up textPlus To Send Text Messages For Free From An iPhone or iPod Touch.

 

1.   Download and Install textPlus from the Apple AppStore.

 

2.  Open textPlus on your device, and then go through the welcome screen.  Tap Cool, lemme in! to get started.

 

 

3.   On the next page, Enter your username.  This name will be your textPlus address, so choose it wisely.  Tap Go when you finish entering it.  This cannot be changed later.

 

4.  Next you’ll be taken to the Settings page.  Enter either your Real Name or Nickname, this is what name people will see when you send them a text message.  Tap Get a FREE account! to continue.

 

Note: If you like you can turn on notifications, Push (recommended) will send you alerts and sounds on your iPod or iPhone but it requires OS version 3.0 or higher.  Regular Text alerts defeat the purpose of using a free texting application as it just forwards your messages to your phone.

 

5.  Next is the Sign Up page.  Enter your email address, and a  new password for your textPlus account.  You can leave the rest of everything at default if you like, but don’t forget to Enter a Postal Code before you Tap Sign me up!

 

6.  This next step is optional, but if you do confirm your normal cell phone number then whenever another textPlus member sends a text to your phone it will instead be received on your textPlus account, thus saving you the SMS fee.

 

Now it should be all set up!  Text messaging from the textPlus application is pretty straight-forward.  There is a  compose button on the top-right corner that lets you enter a new contact or choose from an existing iPhone address book contact.

 

 

So now you have this spiffy new textPlus account, but it’s going to be tough to make useful unless your friends know how to contact you on it.

 

 

How To Text Message A textPlus Account From A Regular Cell Phone. 

 

We have two different ways any cell phone user can contact a textPlus user.

• Method #1:  Reply texts
  • When a textPlus account text message a phone, the user will receive a message that will look like this on the recipients cell phone:
    
     
  • The cell phone user can reply like normal, and the response text message will be sent to everyone that you have invited to the conversation.  Once you’ve sent your reply the service will send you a new text with the option to name yourself for others to see.  To initiate any of the available commands, reply to the message with the command or send it directly to 606110.
    
• Method #2:  Texting directly to a textPlus account from a cell phone
  • To contact someone there isn’t yet a direct number you can text to from a phone.  This is the downside to the app, it will take a couple of texts to make it happen.  First Send a text to 60611, and in the message only put the textPlus username of the person you want to contact.
    
     
  • After you receive the text message saying you can reply, all you have to do is reply to it with the message you want to send to that textPlus user.  You will be required however to respond first with your name.
    

 

Be sure that the people you are texting are on compatible networks!  Here is a list of cell phone companies that will allow textPlus interaction.

Supported Carriers:

• AT&T
• Verizon Wireless
• 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
• Immix/Pc Management

So that covers a look at textPlus for free messaging from a iPhone or iPod touch.   As we saw above, the only downside to the program is it’s complexity to contact someone on a textPlus account from a regular phone unless the textPlus user initiates the conversation.  The rest of the programs performs excellent however because it’s still in beta I’ll wait to review the full application until release / gold code.

Tags: groovyReview, how-to, mobile