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TextNow: Unlimited Free Texting on Your iPhone or iTouch (Google Voice support too!)
- Thread starter derek13
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I don't think I've ever done this with a paid app, but, if you already purchased the app, I think you can delete and reinstall on your phone without having to pay again.
? texting from overseas?
Derek13:
Can anyone (Derek) confirm that this can text from overseas for 'free'.
I am going to Italy and would love to text back home. I will have Roaming off (in Settings) to make sure I don't incur any unwanted charges but would like to be able to text back home without pay Rogers the $0.75 per text.
Can I just just text for free when I get a Wifi signal?
Regular texting uses Voice Roaming and so is billed separately. How would unlimited SMS work in this situation? I guess it would use data Roaming and so I couldn't do it with Roaming off? So I would be confined to Wifi if I don't want to pay?
thanks
p.s.: has this issue on Rogers been fixed yet or dealt with in another manner that doesn't require a 'read' reply?
"As for the Rogers issue you mentioned; yes, the recipient would have to reply with "Read" in order to view the message. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about that because it is the way Rogers decided to implement their network. However, this problem only applies to Rogers and it doesn't apply to the other Canadian carriers (ie. Bell)."
Derek13:
Can anyone (Derek) confirm that this can text from overseas for 'free'.
I am going to Italy and would love to text back home. I will have Roaming off (in Settings) to make sure I don't incur any unwanted charges but would like to be able to text back home without pay Rogers the $0.75 per text.
Can I just just text for free when I get a Wifi signal?
Regular texting uses Voice Roaming and so is billed separately. How would unlimited SMS work in this situation? I guess it would use data Roaming and so I couldn't do it with Roaming off? So I would be confined to Wifi if I don't want to pay?
thanks
p.s.: has this issue on Rogers been fixed yet or dealt with in another manner that doesn't require a 'read' reply?
"As for the Rogers issue you mentioned; yes, the recipient would have to reply with "Read" in order to view the message. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about that because it is the way Rogers decided to implement their network. However, this problem only applies to Rogers and it doesn't apply to the other Canadian carriers (ie. Bell)."
Texting from overseas will be free if you have access to a Wifi signal.
As for recipient who use Rogers as their carrier, recipient will have to reply with "Read" to see the message. We have not found a solution around this yet.
Yeah, when you are sending a text from this app to another phone (whether the other person has an iphone or not), they will receive your message as a regular text.
If the other person does happen to have the app, then you can direct your text message to their @myusms.net address, and also text back and forth that way.
When they text back, assuming you have push notifications available on your iPod, you will be notified via a push notification that you have a text. On your main screen, you will see a little message that has the other persons name, and a blurb of their message. To view the message, you just go to the USMS app, open it up, and you will see all your texts. There should also be badge updates on your USMS to indicate how many new texts you have in case you forgot about the push notification or something.
Also, if the other person wants to initiate texting with you, meaning, they want to send you a text FIRST, they would need to enter your specific @myusms.net address (you get to choose an address) for where to send their text message. They could of course go through their texts and find an old one from you and reply to it to start a new conversation.
Hope that helps!
Do you have version 3.1 ?
Derek (the developer), submitted 3.1 to the app store on 8/28 --
I've been beta testing 3.1 so I'm not sure if it actually has been approved and available for update in the app store for everyone else. If it's not out yet, I'm guessing it will be shortly.
Derek (the developer), submitted 3.1 to the app store on 8/28 --
derek13 said:
I've been beta testing 3.1 so I'm not sure if it actually has been approved and available for update in the app store for everyone else. If it's not out yet, I'm guessing it will be shortly.
This seems to be an issue between my gf and I who both use this app. We both re-downloaded the app, and we still don't get badge notifications when we slide to unlock our phone and are looking at the home screen. Now the weird thing is that if I receive two text msgs from my gf, a badge alert will appear but only with a "1" in the corner (even though I have 2 unread texts). I'm hoping that maybe an update would fix this.
We will look into the badge issue. The icon should show a badge of messages not yet downloaded.
Update, 09/11/2009:
Apple rejected our 3.1 submission. However, we have fixed what they wanted us to fix and resubmitted 3.1 with another feature:
Ability to personalize the app
![personalize.png]()
Apple rejected our 3.1 submission. However, we have fixed what they wanted us to fix and resubmitted 3.1 with another feature:
Ability to personalize the app
Update, 09/11/2009:
Apple rejected our 3.1 submission. However, we have fixed what they wanted us to fix and resubmitted 3.1 with another feature:
Ability to personalize the app
![personalize.png]()
Looking forward to personalizing, I like the last one best! Are you allowed to go into why the rejected the app?
damn. i was hoping that it would be released soon. Now we're onto another 2 week wait huh?
Overall the app seems fine. It does however need some serious polish. I've yet to come across a text messaging application as polished as Apple's own.
For the To: field on composing a new message. Remove the (x) to remove the contact. It looks out of place and is pointless next to the + button.
Larger font size for your message when you're typing it.
The Send button looks funny where it is. I'd suggest an X to close the current message you're typing in on the right, emoticons icon on the left, and the send button in the center
![sendwindow.jpg]()
Something like that. Make the button longer so it is proportional with the size of the box and centered. Not big enough that it's going to cause people to accidentally hit it, but bigger than it currently is.
Next, there's a bug on the keyboard. I can reproduce it every time when i do this.
1. Create a new message
2. Click the To: field, Type in part of someone's name so your selection box pops up below to select someone from a partial name.
3. Then rotate the iphone/ipodtouch in the opposite orientation, then switch back to the normal orientation, and back again. You'll notice the keyboard is all messed up and is in both orientations. I can screen shot it if you'd like.
I'll admit i discovered it by accident in the middle of typing a message and had to pause a few times to grab something, the result was the view rotating several times and caused this.
I'll agree you need to work out a better way to display the name/address stuff so people can more easily see who the message is from.
Option to turn off the icons for a person. Most of mine don't have icons so it's just a large box. I assume it looks pretty good if everyone has an icon, mine however don't, and I'd guess not everyone has icons on theirs either. An option to disable this would be rockin.
All i've got for now. If you want mock up's or screen shots let me know and i'll see what i can do.
Edit: added a mockup since the ascii text version was fail. Hope that gives a better idea. It's rough but should help visualize it.
Bigger font, bigger margin around the edges. Just looks more polished that way. (By all means my mockup is not intended to be "polished" it took me 3 minutes to make lol)
Also, show me how many characters I have remaining.
Overall the app seems fine. It does however need some serious polish. I've yet to come across a text messaging application as polished as Apple's own.
For the To: field on composing a new message. Remove the (x) to remove the contact. It looks out of place and is pointless next to the + button.
Larger font size for your message when you're typing it.
The Send button looks funny where it is. I'd suggest an X to close the current message you're typing in on the right, emoticons icon on the left, and the send button in the center
Something like that. Make the button longer so it is proportional with the size of the box and centered. Not big enough that it's going to cause people to accidentally hit it, but bigger than it currently is.
Next, there's a bug on the keyboard. I can reproduce it every time when i do this.
1. Create a new message
2. Click the To: field, Type in part of someone's name so your selection box pops up below to select someone from a partial name.
3. Then rotate the iphone/ipodtouch in the opposite orientation, then switch back to the normal orientation, and back again. You'll notice the keyboard is all messed up and is in both orientations. I can screen shot it if you'd like.
I'll admit i discovered it by accident in the middle of typing a message and had to pause a few times to grab something, the result was the view rotating several times and caused this.
I'll agree you need to work out a better way to display the name/address stuff so people can more easily see who the message is from.
Option to turn off the icons for a person. Most of mine don't have icons so it's just a large box. I assume it looks pretty good if everyone has an icon, mine however don't, and I'd guess not everyone has icons on theirs either. An option to disable this would be rockin.
All i've got for now. If you want mock up's or screen shots let me know and i'll see what i can do.
Edit: added a mockup since the ascii text version was fail. Hope that gives a better idea. It's rough but should help visualize it.
Bigger font, bigger margin around the edges. Just looks more polished that way. (By all means my mockup is not intended to be "polished" it took me 3 minutes to make lol)
Also, show me how many characters I have remaining.
Apple rejected the app because the app still showed "Updating..." as it tries to connect to the server when the device is offline from the internet. It was a simple fix, but it is a pity that the app has to go through the same process again after resubmission.