Tag Archives: messaging

Schedule Text Messages, Emails, Tweets & Facebook Posts On Android With Schemes

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Productivity is all about management and scheduling. And if you’re doing everything on a timely basis, why not have the ability to communicate with friends and family on a planned time? That’s what Schemes aims to address. In short, it is a very simple yet handy Android app that lets you schedule four types of outgoing communications: SMS, emails, Tweets, and Facebook statuses. The best thing is that all of this is done without any unnecessarily complicated steps. By the way, did you know that the name of this app is actually an acronym? Read on to find out what it means! Read More

Viber Brings Free Messaging, Voice & Video Calling To Windows & Mac

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Viber, the popular free messaging and voice calling app, has received a massive update and has released desktop clients for both Windows and OS X. Both iOS and Android apps now allow you to compose and send video messages. An in-app banner (which can be disabled in the app’s settings if it bothers you) notifies you when you receive a new message or call on the iOS app. The desktop apps themselves are pretty good as well, and come with the added feature of video calls (currently in beta). Calls can easily be transferred between your desktop and mobile phone. Other significant updates to the iOS and Android app include Whatsapp-like online status and last seen time visibility (that can be enabled or disabled), the ability to automatically download received images and videos, adding captions to videos and photos before sending them, a bunch of new stickers, and improved interface. Read More

biteSMS For iPhone Updated With A New Quick Compose NC Widget & More

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Whenever I jailbreak an iPhone, biteSMS is among the first Cydia apps I download. It offers so much in terms of convenience that once you get used to biteSMS, it becomes nearly impossible to go back to the stock Messages app in iOS. Having said that, some other tweaks in the jailbreak store have recently starting coming up with decent alternatives to the features available in biteSMS. Fortunately, the team behind biteSMS isn’t resting on its laurels, and are always looking to make the famous app even better than it already is. Quick Compose is the feature of biteSMS that has managed to attract most fans to the app, and with the app’s latest update, it has become even better! In addition to a plethora of performance improvements and bug fixes, the beta version of biteSMS 7.6 also comes with a brand new Notification Center widget. This widget provides shortcuts that can be used to quickly get in touch with your favorite contacts. Read More

just.me For iPhone Combines Messaging, Email & Social File Sharing

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With so much saturation in the App Store, very few apps can become instant hits these days. just.me has had some time to reel in a decent number of users since the app’s beta came out a few months ago, and it has been in the news for even longer due to the fact that some big names have been backing the project. Now that the app stable version has finally been released, we are pleased to see that it doesn't disappoint. just.me is basically an instant messaging app, but one of the great things about it is that the app works even if your contacts aren't on just.me, as such people receive messages via email or SMS. just.me also incorporates cloud storage, where you can keep any text snippet or media file stored as long as you want. The privacy is completely in the user’s hands, which makes it possible to use just.me even as a social sharing network. Read More

Share Self-Destructing Media Or Text Messages Anywhere With ReadOnce

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There seems to be quite a market for self-destructing messages; popular apps like Snapchat and Facebook’s Poke are proof that people would like to say something and leave behind no trace that they ever said it. Jokes aside, if you’re using a smartphone, it is  likely that there is an app available for sending these self destructing messages. However, there are few options for doing the same from your PC, and the few that do exist support only plain text messages and have an unappealing interface. ReadOnce is a web service that lets you send self destructing messages. These messages can be plain text, images, audio clips, or videos. You can select how long the messages will be visible up to a maximum time limit of 59 seconds. The time can be customized down to the millisecond. The great thing about ReadOnce - apart from the different message formats - is that the message is only deleted from the recipient's side; you still get to keep it for 5 days, and can share it again with anyone. ReadOnce also lets you mask the URL you share using Bit.ly. Read More

Pling Is A Decent Push-To-Talk Based Voice Mail & Messaging App For Mac

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iMessages for Mac and iOS has no parallel when it comes to messaging over an internet connection and keeping messages on your phone synced with those on your desktop. Pling is a free app available in the Mac App Store that does what few messenger apps do; it allows you to send audio messages to your contacts in Pling, and receive those sent by others. The messages can be left any time, and listened to at your convenience. Pling isn't your regular messenger app; it's more like an answering machine that rests in your Menu Bar. Read More

Cryptocat Brings Its Private, Encrypted Group Chat To Mac

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Two of the most important things the internet gave us are anonymity and cat pictures. While you do have the choice and many methods to remain anonymous on the internet, being so doesn't necessarily mean you’re entirely untraceable. Cryptocat is a web service that works via its browser extensions to provide you with a way to have truly secure and private conversations, and the service has just released its first desktop app for the Mac platform. Cryptocat is a free app available on the Mac App Store that lets you initiate a secure private conversation, join one initiated by someone else, or chat with many people in a public lobby. Read More

Chat & Share Dropbox Files With Nearby iPhone Users With ProxToMe

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Sharing photos with nearby people using Bluetooth isn’t much of an issue even on iOS, since the App Store offers plenty of apps for this purpose. When it comes to sending and receiving other files though, things get a little tricky. Sharing music, videos and documents takes some extra effort, but recently some easy ways of doing this have finally started to emerge. ProxToMe is a new iOS app that allows you to connect with other users of the service who are nearby to chat with them and send them any file stored in your Dropbox account. The app uses Bluetooth to find the nearby users. Any files that you receive can be stored in the ProxToMe folder created by the app in your Dropbox. Read More

FileXare Allows Easy File Transfer & Instant Messaging Between PCs Over LAN

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FileXare is a portable, open-source Windows application that lets you transfer files among computers that are connected to the same local network. To send or receive the files, you just have to run the application on both computers and establish a network connection between the machines from either end, using the IP address of the other PC. Along with providing an easy file transfer solution, the tool also lets you send instant text messages between the connected computers, thanks to its integrated chat option. Let’s dig deeper into the app and see how it works. Read More

Best Cross-Platform iMessage Alternatives For iOS Users

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BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) is one of the biggest reasons why (a very small set of) people are still sticking to their BlackBerry devices. Apple saw this trend some time ago, and launched iMessage as part of iOS 5 in 2011. It’s almost exactly like BBM, right down to its propriety iOS and OS X-only nature. It’s great if you have lots of friends who own an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, but it’s very limiting otherwise. In what follows, we will be discussing some of the most powerful and popular cross-platform iMessage alternatives for iOS users so they can communicate with their Android, Windows Phone, Symbian and BlackBerry-toting friends for free. Read More

GroupVox Is A Virtual Walkie Talkie For Facebook Groups & Events [Android, iOS]

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The latest update to the official Facebook Messenger app for Android and iOS might have brought the support for voice messaging, but it cannot be deemed as a true walkie-talkie app. That is because the app only lets you share recorded voice messages with your friends rather than offering real push-to-talk (PTT) functionality like the previously-reviewed Rallee, which impressed us with most of its features but left much to be desired in terms of the interface. If you’re searching for a cross-platform Facebook walkie talkie app that sports a design similar to the official Facebook apps, take a look at GroupVox. Released recently for Android and iOS, GroupVox lets you communicate with select Facebook friends, Groups and Events in walkie talkie style via push-to-talk voice messaging. In addition, you get the option to switch to conventional text-based chatting from the same screen. Read More

Last Message For Android Alerts Select Contacts When Battery Is Low

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Despite constant measures taken by mobile device manufacturers regarding battery performance issues, you’ll still find a lot of dissatisfied users out there complaining about irregularities in their devices’ battery behavior. The worst situation arises when you need to stay in touch with your contacts on the move and your device suddenly powers off due to low battery. How often have you been confronted by such a helpless situation where you were unaware of your device’s battery status and consequentially failed to inform your contacts that you might not be able to reply to them for a while just because of your dead mobile battery? How about an app that could automatically determine your device’s alarmingly low battery level in such dire circumstances and send that one final message to your contacts before you can catch up with them again after a fresh recharge. Enter Last Message – a free and customizable Android app that is capable of automatically sending a personalized message to your SMS, mail and social contacts once your device’s battery reaches a user-specified critital minimum. Read More

Facebook Messenger For iOS & Android Gets Voice Messaging & VoIP Calls

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In the past few months, Mark Zuckerberg and his team have been working quite hard to beef up the Facebook Messenger app for Android and iOS with some handy features. What started as a rather simple, standalone mobile messaging app for avid Facebookers now qualifies as a handy SMS replacement that doesn’t even require a Facebook account to get configured. So far, the app’s content sharing capabilities revolved around text messages, images, emojis and locations. The latest update brings the added functionality of voice messaging to both Android and iOS variants; instant 1-minute audio messages that can be shared as part of a conversation. A Viber and Vonage-like VoIP calling service is also reported to be under experimentation for iOS users in Canada. The free internet calling facility is expected to be announced for other parts of the world soon. Read More

Android App Of Social Voice Messaging Service VoiceBo Hits Play Store

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VoiceBo is a cross-platform social voice message sharing service for web, Windows, Mac, iOS and Android that lets users privately as well as publicly share brief recorded audio clips with others. While the iOS client of the service has been around for quite some time now, the Android app has just made its way into the Play Store. Besides sharing Hallo-like short but high quality voice clips (known as Bos), the app supports sharing content under various tags/categories, and lets you supplement your audio bits with relevant images as well as your current location. Therefore, you can share almost anything that requires some sort of oral description, such as explanation of the picture being shared, a personal message to your loved one, your opinion on a common topic of interest, or anything similar. Each voice message can be recorded for a maximum of five minutes, and can be shared publicly, privately or directly with a specific contact. As with any social app, there are plenty of tools available at users’ disposal to interact with the shared content and spread the best content further with your mates. Read More

Free Video/Voice Calling, IM & File Sharing App AireTalk Comes To Android

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Android users have countless ways to interact with their friends over the internet using various VoIP calling, feature-packed instant messaging and remote file sharing apps. While the likes of Viber, WhatsApp, Skype and the official mobile clients of all renowned social networks are most users'  first choice, there are certain relatively less known yet equally formidable alternatives out there, like BeMe, Parlingo and PingMe. Sporting simple looks and most of the features provided by the aforementioned names, AireTalk by PingShow is a cross-platform communication app for Windows, Android and iOS-powered devices that contains almost everything that one could wish to have in a quality IM app. You can make free voice & video calls, chat via texts, use the app as a walkie talkie, share multimedia content and files with your buddies, and trace your contacts’ location on map in real-time, over both Wi-Fi and mobile data. Though, that's not where AireTalk's list of features ends. Continue reading past the break for further details. Read More

New CyanogenMod 10 Messaging App Review & Installation Guide

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The new Messaging app in the latest CyanogenMod 10 nightly ROMs is pretty awesome, and adds some great new features to the stock Android Messaging app. If you’re already running one of the latest CyanogenMod 10 nightly ROMs on your Android device, you have it installed already but if you are on any other ROM based on CM10, you can easily install this new Messaging app to your phone. To learn more, read on after the jump for our brief review of the new features added by CyanogenMod team in this app, the download link and the installation instructions. Read More

Get SMS Preview & Badge Count On The Messaging Live Tile In WP7

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Rooting your Windows Phone 7 might reduce the overall stability of the device, but most people aren’t likely to notice that, thanks to the awesomeness Homebrew apps can bring to your Mango phone. You can get a lot of cosmetic and productive customizations for your WP7 if you have an interop unlock. Developed by Windows Phone Hacker, SMS Tile is a new homebrew that changes the overall behavior of the Messaging live tile in WP7. By default, the live tile only shows the total count of unread messages, and the smiley changes its mood with respect to the amount of messages in your inbox (winking on a new text, amazed at a lot of new texts and sad when a delivery fails). SMS Tile takes away the emoticon from the Messaging tile, and replaces it with a preview of your last unread message, while revamping the badge as well. The app doesn’t affect the banner text notifications, and you can learn all about SMS Tile by heading past the break. Read More

BurnNote: Send Private Messages That Are Auto-Deleted After A Defined Time [Web]

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Not long ago, we covered DUE.IM, a text message service that allowed you to send one-time readable, private messages to others. BurnNote is a similar web application that offers you the same functionality, but with additional options. The service lets you send private messages to others that can only be viewed once and are deleted after a set amount of time. Deleted burn notes are completely erased from the BurnNote servers, so it is impossible for anyone to retrieve them. All you have to do is enter your message (password, number, link, note etc), and the service will instantly generate a private URL that you can share with your buddies. Once the message has been read by the recipient, BurnNote will automatically ‘burn’ it, ensuring that it remains private. That’s how simple it is! Read More

BlingBoard For Android: Widget For Call, Messaging, Facebook & Twitter Alerts/Updates

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The option to check your latest email, messaging and social media notifications/feeds on your phone via homescreen widgets is one of the things the Android platform is revered for. Fresh to the Google Play Store, BlingBoard is a slick and beautifully designed Android homescreen widget that adds a bit of style to the aforementioned concept, and lets you view your latest missed calls, unread text messages, emails, Facebook and Twitter feeds under one roof. The widget is a collection of five main tabs that provide you easy and instant access to notifications pertaining to each of the aforementioned categories without requiring you to launch apps for each. You can view the 20 latest updates within each category, call your contacts back, send a quick reply to received text messages, and post directly to your Facebook Wall and Twitter timeline. Read More

FlockThere: Real-Time Location & Message Sharing For Meetups [Android]

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Merging the concept of real-time location and message sharing, FlockThere is an extremely useful Android and iOS app that helps you learn of your contacts’ current locations who might be on their way to attending an event. Imagine the facility of having an app at your disposal that shows the geographical position of all your invitees/guests on map, so that you know exactly where they are, and when to expect them to arrive at the event location. What’s even better is that using FlockThere, you can stay in touch with all those contacts via chat messages. In short, FlockThere provides you with real-time location of your guests on map, and helps you stay apprised of their progress/journey via text messages; all info shared on the same screen. All you need to do is create and send a new Flock invitation to your contacts via the app, and start tracking them in real-time. Invitations can be sent to the contact’s email ID or phone number, and the best part about the entire deal is that you can keep adding/removing participants from a Flock even after it has been created. Provided your contacts/guests are already on FlockThere, they can reply directly from within the app. Even if they do not have the app on their devices, they can still keep in touch with you via the service’s web-enabled chat interface (requires internet connection of some sort). Read More