With bloated fees for everything on your cell phone carrier, it's easy to get frustrated when you or someone on your family plan goes over your text message limit.
To combat this, app developers have taken advantage of mobile broadband access to bring free texting to your smartphone. And they're not-surprisingly some of the most popular apps available.
While many of the free texting services are ad-supported, it's still a small price to pay for a new phone number where you can send and receive unlimited texts.
We took a look at the best smartphone messaging apps for all major platforms. Each one offers unlimited text messages or instant messages and are either free or cheap to download. Either way, you'll save.
Tip: Make sure you enable push notifications for each of these apps so you receive your new messages instantly.
Kik is a BBM alternative that works with iPhone and Android.
Kik takes what people love about BlackBerry Messenger and brings it to all three major smartphone platforms. Like BBM, messages on Kik are sent almost instantly and you get a notification when it is delivered and received. The app is free, and you get unlimited messages.
Kik scans your address book for new friends, so be sure to add your phone number when you register so they can find you.
Follow these links for the free iPhone and Android versions of the app. The BlackBerry version has been pulled from the App World store, but we hope it returns soon.
Google Voice gives you a new number to text from
When you sign up for a Google Voice account, you're getting more than an alternate phone number. You can also send unlimited free texts from Gmail or your phone. Google Voice's smartphone app sends you alerts when you receive new texts, just like the app that came pre installed on your phone. Your conversations are saved online too, so you can view them later.
Click here to get the app for Android, iPhone, and Blackberry.
Fring will connect you to the major instant message networks
Fring is a messaging app that connects to the major instant message networks such as AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN, and Facebook. You can also make voice and video calls to other Fring members for free, even if they are using a different phone. Chances are, your contacts use one or more of these networks, so running this smartphone app in the background is a good move.
Follow these links to download Fring for iPhone, Android, and Nokia Symbian phones.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
