Between Apple’s iMessage platform for iPhones and the other ways that smartphone users can avoid the SMS system (think Google Voice) text message volume through AT&T must be dropping. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be trying to lock customers in to one of two plans: paying twenty or thirty cents per message, or paying $20 for unlimited text messages. The plans offering blocks of 200 or 1500 texts once available to customers are gone: no longer an option.

Max sent along this chat screenshot, which we’re guessing originates from Reddit, and writes:

I’m not sure if you guys have been getting notified about this, but
AT&T no longer offers any options when choosing a text-messaging plan.
You either have to pay $20 for “Messaging Unlimited” or pay $0.20 for
each text message. You can no longer pre-purchase chunks of 200-1000
texts.

I noticed this last month, when I tried to downgrade my texting plan.
With Apple’s launch of iMessage, and the majority of AT&T’s users on
iPhones, I’m assuming the rate of text messages is dropping
drastically.

Attached is a screenshot from a friend’s Facebook profile showing a
CSR being helpful.

Well, it is nice to see a mobile carrier still offering unlimited something, even if text messages are kind of a crappy deal.

We’re not sure about Max’s assertion that most customers on AT&T are using iPhones, especially now that AT&T’s exclusive rights have been dropped. What is true is that most phones have some kind of Internet access, making text messages less important than they were, say, five years ago.

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