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Texting that uses the data plan?

Is there an texting app that uses the data plan instead of text plan? I currently only have 200 txts per month and don't want to go over it. I believe iPhone has that type of app and hopefully Android would have one too.

i believe google voice does this

systoxity said:
i believe google voice does this
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Can confirm from personal experience -- just make sure you turn off SMS alerts in GV settings. In other words, the app on your phone checks for SMS but GV doesn't send a real SMS to your phone.

I don't know if this is still true, but almost every carrier allows txtx from emails.
Example everyone on att has an email address that it [email protected]
If you email them at this address (it will use your data plan), and they will receive it as a txt.
Not sure if ATT changed this you might want to verify that this will go over data.

Bjd223 said:
I don't know if this is still true, but almost every carrier allows txtx from emails.
Example everyone on att has an email address that it [email protected]
If you email them at this address (it will use your data plan), and they will receive it as a txt.
Not sure if ATT changed this you might want to verify that this will go over data.
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That does work, but if that person receives your txt and replies back, I think it comes back to your phone as a SMS. So you still use one SMS.
Try Google Voice. You can send SMS from it and when they reply back it goes to your Google Voice number in lieu of your real cell phone number. That way it comes in to the Google Voice app. But just as someone else recommended, make sure you turn off SMS notifications, otherwise every time you get a voicemail or txt message google will send you an SMS message to notify you.

or use google talk, its quicker, and they have a BB/Android/iOS client... AND its already installed on your phone.

I just tried TALK last night, and I have Google Voice. I can get messages, but and reply to them.
But I can't figure out how to send a text to someone in my address book whom I have not received a text from yet. The only people who show up in the contacts list for TALK are people who have Google IM set up in email, and that is very few.
Any tips?

ewingr said:
I just tried TALK last night, and I have Google Voice. I can get messages, but and reply to them.
But I can't figure out how to send a text to someone in my address book whom I have not received a text from yet. The only people who show up in the contacts list for TALK are people who have Google IM set up in email, and that is very few.
Any tips?
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When I go into my regular contact list and tap Send Message I get the option to choose Messaging, Handcent or Google Voice to send the message with. What happens if you just tap send message on a contact?
Edit: Oh you said Google Talk. I didn't know you could send text messages using talk. Nevermind then! But you can use Google Voice. Additionally you can set Google Voice notification to e-mail instead of SMS so you'll be e-mailed when you get a new SMS.

That is interesting. It does NOT come up and ask me how to send it. It just tries to send it.
Now, here is something maybe: I did not ever see any insructions that I need to install Google Voice on my phone. I just now went to the market and searched for it, and am installing right now. (Google seems to me to be horrible about providing documentation/instructions).
....
Ok, it is installed. I just went to contacts, selected send message, and it is the same.
Another thing...I have seen demos that if you swipe a contact to the left it goes into message, and to the right it calls. It calls no matter how I swipe.
Another note: I do not have SMS messaging with AT&T, and in fact I have it turned off, because I don't want people sending me SMS that I get billed for. I wonder if that could have anything to do with this.
By the way, I had been told I needed Google Talk to get the TEXTs that others send me. But...that was when I was on a WinMo phone. Maybe I don't need Google Talk. Maybe I just need to figure out how to get Google Voice working on this phone. Alathough I will say that the text message I did get from a friend I'm trying to test with came in via Google Talk.

Got it working. The install of voice on my phone helped

brandonb81 said:
When I go into my regular contact list and tap Send Message I get the option to choose Messaging, Handcent or Google Voice to send the message with. What happens if you just tap send message on a contact?
Edit: Oh you said Google Talk. I didn't know you could send text messages using talk. Nevermind then! But you can use Google Voice. Additionally you can set Google Voice notification to e-mail instead of SMS so you'll be e-mailed when you get a new SMS.
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I'm pretty sure Google Talk is more like a chat IM service than a text messaging service. The person you are wanting to chat with has to have the client installed on their phone as well.
I think Google Voice is the best option for free text messages. You can get a free new phone number, then you just open Google Voice and text away. Anybody who replies to your SMS, their txt will come into Google Voice for free. You can send and receive free text messages all day long.

Not paying AT&T for a texting plan is definitely going to be nice! Thanks for the info.

derek4484 said:
That does work, but if that person receives your txt and replies back, I think it comes back to your phone as a SMS. So you still use one SMS.
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It will come back to you as an e-mail if you send it that way. I've texted my mom a few times this way and the reply shows up as an e-mail.

Google voice is open now. You'll have a new #, but free texts over data. Very good push integration too.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Yep Google talk is the way to go!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

derek4484 said:
That does work, but if that person receives your txt and replies back, I think it comes back to your phone as a SMS. So you still use one SMS.
Try Google Voice. You can send SMS from it and when they reply back it goes to your Google Voice number in lieu of your real cell phone number. That way it comes in to the Google Voice app. But just as someone else recommended, make sure you turn off SMS notifications, otherwise every time you get a voicemail or txt message google will send you an SMS message to notify you.
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Email method works. When the person replies, it would come to email, not as text... I used this method over an year, before I switched to google voice recently.

Ping chat works great
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897

still getting charged for messaging with handcent?

so i downloaded "Handcent" text messaging and it works fine... other then getting double notification i had a question:::::
since i get double notification it obviously means the Stock SMS still gets text messages from people i send messages to from handcent... do i get charged towards my texting plan on the stock sms? or not?.... if i am, would a solution be to rename the stock sms file with .old in the end of it so its gone? will i still get charged towards my plan?

Handcent uses the same SMS system app so there's no extra charge for texting via it.
To solve the double notification, just go open the default messaging app, hit menu -> settings -> uncheck Notifications.
Now you should only get notifications via Handcent.

NKT said:
Handcent uses the same SMS system app so there's no extra charge for texting via it.
To solve the double notification, just go open the default messaging app, hit menu -> settings -> uncheck Notifications.
Now you should only get notifications via Handcent.
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my concern is that im still getting messages to my stock sms... doesnt matter?
im not getting cahrged?

Frenzifun said:
my concern is that im still getting messages to my stock sms... doesnt matter?
im not getting cahrged?
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Technically, yes. The stock sms program still gets the texts. But all it really is doing is accessing the same system SMS program as Handcent.
They're both just front ends for interacting with the SMS program.
You don't get charged "extra" for using Handcent versus the stock messaging app.
I've been using Handcent from day one and there's no extra charge and all my messages show up in both apps. I just never open the stock app.

Handcent doesn't bypass SMS charges by using data. It's just another app that does what the stock SMS app does, just a bit more prettily.
For free SMS you need Google Voice. But note you have to use the Google Voice phone number as inbound/outbound. Also, there's no api for sending messages through Google Voice so you can't use any frontend app besides Voice itself.
Sent from my Fascinate using XDA

s44 said:
Handcent doesn't bypass SMS charges by using data. It's just another app that does what the stock SMS app does, just a bit more prettily.
For free SMS you need Google Voice. But note you have to use the Google Voice phone number as inbound/outbound. Also, there's no api for sending messages through Google Voice so you can't use any frontend app besides Voice itself.
Sent from my Fascinate using XDA
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thereee is my answer, awesome, thank you... so its still used as one of my text messages on my 500 plan.
so in that case theres no point in it for me...
now how do i do this google voice thing... i have an account with google voice with my gmail account... how does this free texting take place?

Frenzifun said:
thereee is my answer, awesome, thank you... so its still used as one of my text messages on my 500 plan.
so in that case theres no point in it for me...
now how do i do this google voice thing... i have an account with google voice with my gmail account... how does this free texting take place?
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Ahhh, I see now. Yes, any texting from your phone's number is charged to your texting plan.
To use SMS through Google Voice, just give people your GV number and have them use that to text you. It will not be charged to your plan text bucket.

First install the GV app if you haven't...
Then, as the previous guy said, just have people text the GV number. For outbound texts you can either fire up the GV app and select "Compose" from the menu/respond to a text someone's already sent your GV, or go to Contacts and use "Send Message" for a contact (the first time you do this the app choice menu should pop up -- you can set GV as the default for future uses).

Make sure Google Voice isn't set to forward the text messages from your Google Voice number to your cell phone number or you will be charged for the text sent from Google Voice to your Cell number.

Whatsapp
my application solution for texts etc.
tango
video chat for android =]

AT&T Messaging... like GV but from AT&T

http://www.att.com/shop/apps/att-messages.jsp?source=IAMS2500000000ZCU#fbid=2j54IbKcpyR
Its essentially just like Google Voice but uses your own AT&T number with voicemail, texting, mms, and missed call notifications.
Just loaded it... be weary, looks like it take some time to sync and begin... its not as quick as GV either

do you see any obvious advantages? other than being able to use your own number
EDIT: installed it, nice app. i like it

Backup and review of all messages on the cloud. Slightly safer than Google.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

tried it right now and here is my thoughts on it
Pros: You are able to text from your computer using YOUR number and not the number that google has given you. Also if you dont have a signel on your phone you are still able to text from your computer, this also goes if you dont have your phone with you but you are still at a computer. Its an all in one system were you can get your text and voicemail in one place
cons: For some reason i cant get the website to load my messages but that could be just me, at this moment you cant disable notifications, not that much customization
i feel that it can be a great app given more time to improve on it but for right now i installed it tried it and uninstalled it because google voice is still better

Took a couple hours but it started working super smoothly. I don't like how it handles missed calls so now I use the messaging app for texts and what not and Google voice for voicemail.
Sometimes tthe messages don't sync but a force kill and app restart fixes it.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

does this require a texting plan? currently I block all texts to and from my phone and just use GV, does this use data only for texts? I'm guessing AT&T wouldn't be that stupid...

it requires data and text but the data doesnt count unless you have a 4g plan (for now). just texts at some point. says so in the fine print.

camelontherun said:
it requires data and text but the data doesnt count unless you have a 4g plan (for now). just texts at some point. says so in the fine print.
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Figures, GV for me!

Cool. I'm gonna give it a try.
Miui 1.9.23 w/V6 Ram script, 3g Booster & Kick Ass Kernel Tweaks

jgotti107 said:
Cool. I'm gonna give it a try.
Miui 1.9.23 w/V6 Ram script, 3g Booster & Kick Ass Kernel Tweaks
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after you sync, give it a couple hours to settle (youll know when you only get notifications for the att app and not from the Android Messaging app).

Does this cost money to use like at&t navigator, at&t music, etc?

BenKranged said:
Does this cost money to use like at&t navigator, at&t music, etc?
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no
10chars

Great timing for this app. I was debating purchasing a DeskSMS license but this is a good alternative.

this app is weird. i was kind of hoping for an app to sit in my sys tray so that i could see my texts from there and reply, like any other instant messaging app. This app requires you to log in to a clunky website to send and receive texts. the notifier app only tells you that you have messages.

It is clunky. Also expired my VM. ATT guy had no idea about the app or what it does and couldn't answer why the VM was expired. Seems that this app sets up another VM or sorts. Not crazy about the notifications either as they don;t seem to update when on the conversation...I dunno. Deleted it per the ATT service rep...funny really as one section has no idea what the other is doing.

I just get a message that says it can't complete the setup and I should contact AT&T support...

After you install the app and activate the service, this will change your voicemail retrieval number. If you used to call from another line to check your VM, you will need to call a different number from now on. Of course you also get Visual VM now.
I coud not access my mailbox, I was getting a prompt saying that my mailbox was not found, until I realized about this change. I fixed it by updating the call forwarding setting, under Android settings > call settings.

Tried it and don't like it. "Messages" app seems to take up a lot of RAM as well as battery. Made my phone a little laggy at times as well. How do I get my OLD voicemail back? I hate calling and having to enter my PIN # every single time to check messages. I used to be able to just click the notification icon and it'd go right through. Any help would be appreciated.

I had to call ATT to have the VM reset. It turned in to an hour long process with the ATT guy calling me back 3 times.
Edit..I take that back PIN still isn't working.

the app tells you that your voicemail will change. Its not a surprise by any means. If you want to change back your voicemail just ask that the give you basic voicemail. Takes two minutes. Just don't forget to set your greeting.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

Google Voice for text?

How exactly does Google voice work? I want to set it up for text so I don't have to pay att the 20 dollars a month for unlimited text. For calls I'll stick with carrier I don't know how much data a call will eat up.
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You're going to want to Google that from your computer. You need to set it up from there
Sent from my CM9 ICS i897 Captivate

darkchyldx101 said:
How exactly does Google voice work? I want to set it up for text so I don't have to pay att the 20 dollars a month for unlimited text. For calls I'll stick with carrier I don't know how much data a call will eat up.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA
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keep in mind that mms also goes over text plan, so any mms would have to be google voice as well.

I really don't text much right now I pay 5 bucks for 200 text. But when I upgrade soon it seems I'll have a choice between $20/month for unlimited text or .20 cent for every text. Just wondering if Google voice is a better alternative.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA

darkchyldx101 said:
How exactly does Google voice work?
...
For calls I'll stick with carrier I don't know how much data a call will eat up.
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gVoice does not work that way! A call is still a call, why go through the extra effort to make something VoIP when the current system for wireless audio transmission works very well. Google is never going to make the Android app do VoIP.
Also gVoice does not support MMS, thanks to social media sites/apps and web browers on the phone, there is no reason for gVoice to support them. Again another system exists that does a better job. The purpose to gVoice is not to bypass the services that wireless providers offer, it is to make managing multiple numbers an easier process (just as the video says). One other thing is that gVoice does not work with other text servers, only actual phone numbers. So no texting "LOL" to 12345 to vote for something on TV.
As to "how exactly" it works. Simply put gVoice is a redirection service.
They give you a what is essentially a mobile number that you hand out to whomever you wish, then you tell gVoice what numbers you want it to contact when it's number is called or gets a text. With the app it automaticaly adds your cell number to the list.
A call works like this: Person A dials the gVoice number, a computer answers and calls you, you answer and person A is forwarded to you. The exact opposite is true for the other direction. You > computer > person & forwards. If you watched the video explaining gVoice then you'll see that you can have gVoice dial multiple numbers at once on in-coming calls.
A text works like this: Person A sends a text to the gVoice number, a computer receives the text. At this point, it can either send you a text acting exactly the same as a call, or you can have it do nothing and rely on the app to let you know a text was sent to gVoice. Sending a text via the app is just like posting something via twitter or such except that instead of it going to a web site it goes to a computer that sends a text back to Person A. gVoice will figure out how to break up the message on its own for the size limit of a text, if sending to another gVoice number it sends the whole message and one piece.
If you want more exact then that you'll have to ask Google.
Now, due to the nature of the system there are a lot of neat/useful/mean things you can do. you can have gVoice block numbers instead of relying on the carrier. you can have all calls from one grouping of people get redirected to a specific number (to only your cell, or only to home,maybe even to one that is not actually yours ). you can set up some groups to be forwarded immediately, and others be given a prompt (your end) to screen their calls. you can save yourself from needing text messaging by relying on the app. you can give specific groups a different recording that they hear when they call and have to leave a message (if you use gVoice as your voicemail). Or you can do like me, and give some people the gVoice number and others only the cell number, so that if I ever have a reason to change the cell number the gVoice users are none the wiser.

I guess the best thing to do is give it a try. If its doesn't work the way I need it to I'll guess I'll have to choose the unlimited text plan. Thanks for the info.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA

For what it's worth, i have the $5 / 200 text plan + Google voice. I use the AT&T mms on the 200 texts and Google voice for everything else. It works great for me because i can send text messages from my browser when i can't use my phone (plus i type faster on a full keyboard), and i don't have to worry about overages. I don't call that much, so minutes aren't an issue.
I liked that voice let he pick a number that made sense to me.
Also, if someone sends an mms to your Google voice number, you can have it set up to go to your gmail.

I use Google voice as a separate thing. I have a tmobile pay as you go plan on my captivate. As long as I have wifi. I get free texting through Google voice. Note, you get a separate number assigned by area. Porting your own number costs 20 bucks.
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I use Google voice to call people so they don't get my actual number, I also text on it, but you can't receive mms which sucks, but you can use Google Voice And Textfree for mms
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA

Hangouts Dialer App + Google Voice

Just in case you don't know...the new Hangouts Dialer app is out and if you've enabled Google Voice on your Sprint account...VOILA!! WIFI calling.
Just tried on my Nexus 7 and it works great. Calls going to my Sprint number are routed to the tablet also. If I don't have data but still have service (Wild and Wonderful West Virginia)...the calls still go to my phone.

Ok so a little update...
I received the message to allow hangouts to basically replace the google voice app. Hangouts is faster than the gvoice app every was..which is good. Also consumes less battery.
However, if I don't have data or WiFi I can't send texts from hangouts even though it's my default app for messaging. If I don't have data I have to use the stock messenger. Which isn't exactly a problem...just wanted to state the fact.
Texts and calls work on my nexus 7. Voice quality seems fine even tho I have DSL at home.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Free mobile app

Under settings>SMS and settings>[your email here] you can control whether texts are sent from gvoice or your regular phone number [emoji106]

Every time I make outgoing calls on my tablet, the caller ID shows up as unknown. Also, how can I send sms through tablets?

Settings, email, and then look under Google Voice section to enable messages.
My caller ID is working just fine from my tablet. I'm sure there's going to be kinks that need worked out. I've had random issues with GV for years lol
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Free mobile app