Free texting from your mobile!!!!

MSE_Martin

A new site has launched allowing ‘free’ texting off your mobile phone. What follows are my provisional notes, but I do plan to write a full article with detailed comparisons and proper numbercrunching on it in future. Meanwhile I’d love feedback from anyone who tries the service

What is it?

www.Tex2me.com is a piece of software you download onto your phone that enables you to send messages to anyone else with the software (think a bit like Skype) and it doesn’t charge for this service.

How it works?

You download the software for free from the website onto your phone (it needs to be a modern phone with GPRS, most camera phones should do it) as do the people you’ll want to text. Then you go into that application to send or read any text messages. It’s important to note the text messages don’t pop in your SMS file, you have to open this application to know you’ve got them.

However if you wanted a text chat with someone and simply sent a real text message to tell them to open the application - then its a good cost saving

Who’s it suitable for?

It’s primarily suitable for heavy texters, as you need to check your in-box each time you want to see if you’ve got a message. Its especially good for those who’s main texts are to a few people (ie kids/partner) only – then you can simply arrange that you both have the software.

In many ways its more like an online email system than texting - except you don't need an email address set up. It's speedy though - you login - check your inbox, read and send a message to your friend.

What’s the cost


The www.tex2me.com service itself doesn’t charge, however your network service provider will charge you for sending the data via GPRS (which is a bit like web on a mobile). The amount you pay depends on your GPRS service, but for most its likely to be very cheap per text – often substantially less than 1p - however for having the GPRS bundle on your phone you're probably paying a minimum charge of £2/£3 a month.

What’s the catch

This is new software and its in ‘Beta testing’ stage. Of course you don’t get the ‘beep beep’ of a normal text and need to keep logging in to check your messages, its more fiddly. Not a problem if you receive loads of them though. Yet it will save you serious wads of cash if you use it regularly instead of paying for text messages.

The company doing this is doing it for free – its aim is to build an online community and once its done that it’s likely to add premium services you will pay for and advertising to the site. It does promise to never charge for the basic service though.

Who’s the competition

There’s two main other options. The first is www.smsbug.com which uses internet technology to send actual text messages, however they cost 0.03 Euros per text – still very cheap, but not free. Then there’s http://hotxt.co.uk/ which works in a very similar way to text2me, but costs £1/week.

Martin

Their Press Release For Additional Info
However please remember as it s a press release, read it with a pinch of salt!

_______________________________________________

Tex2 slashes the price of text.

(With savings of up to £30 a month).

Tex2 is sweeping the country. It’s a revolution that heralds a new dawn in text based messaging, where boundaries and cost disappear.

Tex2 means that texting now costs next to nothing thanks to modern mobile phones’ ability to connect to the Internet and one mans’ ingenuity.

Phil Jones, 37, from the tiny Suffolk village of St James South Elmham came up with Tex2 in November 2005, during long sleepless nights caused by his new born son Daniel. When he tried it amongst his mates they immediately gave it the thumbs up.

Tex2 needs both texters to download a tiny programme and install it on their phones much like a ringtone or game. It’s available, free, from the website www.tex2me.com along with comprehensive instructions.

Once Tex2 is up and running, messages are then sent from phone to phone across the Internet, for fractions of a penny, rather than being sent through the networks’ text messaging routes at up to 12p a go.

Once someone’s installed Tex2, they can send an invitation to all their friends to download the programme too.

Says inventor Phil Jones, “Our vision is to let Tex2 create thousands of communities that can send text messages using their mobiles for just the cost of the data. In trials people have texted all evening for less than 50p. And that money goes to the networks for carrying the messages. We don’t see a penny.”

“Once we’d proved that we could send over the internet, we decided to let everyone in on our secret. Why should the networks be raking in up to 12p a text when we’re able to send and receive them for fractions of a penny? We can afford to give Tex2 away because we have very low overheads and no greedy shareholders to satisfy,” says Phil. “Tex2 shows there really is such a thing as a free lunch.”

Adds Phil, “We pledge Tex2 will remain free, for ever. Like Skype has already done for voice calls, we’re harnessing the power of the internet to let people communicate by text, for virtually nothing, from their mobile phone. There really are no strings attached.”

Tex2 is especially good news for people using pre pay phones. Under 18s aren’t allowed mobile contracts and so miss out on the best text bundles.

Tex2 could save them £30.00 a month or more.

It also works abroad.

And yes, there really are no strings attached.

Notes to editors
It may sound too good to be true. It isn’t. Trust us. If you don’t believe what you read, give us a call!

Tex2 can be downloaded from www.tex2me.com. There’s no sign up, no money will change hands, there are no strings attached and very few terms and conditions apply!

All that’s required is a relatively modern mobile phone that is GPRS enables and runs Java. Most camera phones fit the bill.

Tex2 has been developed and launched, independently, by three individuals. Neither Tex2 nor the individuals responsible for its development have any connection with any other commercial or retail organisation. A patent application relating to Tex2 has been lodged.

After successful beta trials, the www.tex2me.com website went live in February 2006.

redux

It looks like the difference between this and others like smsbug is that it receives via gprs as well, whereas they send via sms (I think, as I never received any smsbug registration ones).

Presumably it would need gprs on all the time though, or are the messages cached until next access?

madfrenchgirl

mmm

when do they say what is in it for them?

billie19

Can we rewind a bit....

I'm not quite understanding how it all works.

Does this mean that you have to connect to GPRS ?

How much does GPRS connection cost ?

Cheers

Billie

MSE_Martin

Initial post updated with further info

MSE_Martin

Billie yes you do have to connect via GPRS which your phone if its a new one should do no problems

How much it costs depends on your price plan - but for the limited data that one message actually sends it should be very cheap

sra

Hmm interesting

two thoughts spring to mind

You're paying to recieve. Won't be happy if we end up paying to recieve spam - even if it is pennies

Other thought - Does it go by phone number or username? Big advantages if it goes by username - could share it with lots of people where you wouldn't give out your phone number

espresso

MSE_Martin wrote:

How much it costs depends on your price plan - but for the limited data that one message actually sends it should be very cheap

Think that you need to research the true cost of GPRS. Fine if you can use GPRS for free, but how many can? Orange charge a minimum of £4 monthly for 4MB or at a rate of £3 per MB up to 3MB used, if you don't go for the contract bundle. On PAYG it's £4 per MB used.

Yes the actual message may not actually cost much when compared to a text, but how much do you have to pay to get GPRS?

sra wrote:

You're paying to receive. Won't be happy if we end up paying to recieve spam - even if it is pennies

You're paying to send as well unless you get free GPRS!

boatman

As has been said, more of an email than a text message. The whole point of a text is that its immediate.
I suppose you could send a sms text first to alert the person, then use tex2me to continue the conversation, like msn messenger.

matto

I think most PAYG and non-contract GPRS is charged per kb. If you only send and receive one message at a time then it effectively costs 0.6/0.8p per message at £3/4 per MB (sending and receiving cost).

I'd like to know whether it costs anything to check your mailbox as it were? Is there any data upload/download required just to find out you've got no new messages? Maybe that's why its better for heavy texters.

Personally I like the look of the SMSBug service.

matto

What about

https://www.smsplanet.org

This appears to use GPRS to send but SMS to receive (like SMSBug and mobisms) but is free.

From the T+Cs it looks like they make money by sending adverts (web links) to you.