If there’s one feeling that many iOS users share, it’s the anticipatory rush you get when you see those three blinking dots in the iMessage app that means someone is typing (unless they just stop and destroy you entirely). Android users may someday share that distinct emotion, according to renewed buzz. [More]
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Apple Reportedly, Maybe, Possibly Thinking About Bringing iMessage To Android Devices
By 10.26.16 — Updated: 10.31.16
Report: Snapchat Toying With IPO Valued At $25B
By 10.6.16
Three years after some folks laughed at Snapchat for reportedly turning down $3 billion from Facebook and $4 billion from Google, the messaging platform is apparently planning to go public with an initial offering that values the company at several times those earlier amounts. [More]
Twitter Tweaks Direct Messages To Add Read Receipts, Typing Indicators
By 9.8.16
In yet another example of the social media technology version of keeping up the with Joneses, Twitter announced today that it’s rolling out changes to Direct Messages that will make the platform a lot more like its competitors, including read receipts so you’ll know if your friend is deliberately ignoring you. [More]
Google Launches iOS Keyboard That Allows Searches Within Other Apps
By 5.12.16
Imagine a world in which you don’t have to leave your riveting text conversation to search the web for the appropriate GIF. Dream no more: Google today announced that it has created a new keyboard for iOS devices that allows users to perform searches from their messages. [More]
YouTube Adding A Messaging Tool To Its Mobile Apps
By 5.12.16
If you’re the kind of person who can’t help but send your friends the latest and greatest cat videos when you’re deep in a YouTube hole, you could cut some steps from your sharing process if the video service’s new messaging function becomes a permanent feature. [More]
It’s Not Just You: Comcast Is Having A Nationwide Outage Today
By 2.15.16
This morning, some readers alerted us that they were having problems with their cable TV. Were they alone? Were they being punished by the entertainment gods on a federal holiday? No, as far as we know, that isn’t actually a thing. What we do know is that there are outages reported in cities across the country, and Comcast’s Twitter team is posting so rapidly that their wrists may be on fire. UPDATE: The outage is over. [More]
Yahoo Introduces Livetext, A Video Messaging App Without Any Audio
By 7.29.15
Skype, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Viber, and Facebook Messenger are just a few of the many messaging services available to consumers. That list grew by one today with the unveiling of Livetext from Yahoo. [More]
T-Mobile Launches Advanced Messaging: Texts With iMessage Features
By 7.22.15
Over the years, the creation of messaging apps and their plentiful features – read receipts, quick responses, the ability to send large photo and video files – have cut into the territory once occupied by traditional SMS texting. While standard texting isn’t exactly dead, its prospects aren’t looking super sunny as T-Mobile announced it would be revamping its messaging to offer more features. [More]
Snapchat Settles Federal Charges It Misled Users About Privacy
By 5.8.14
One of the reasons people use the Snapchat messaging app, especially for messages that one may not want to have a permanent record of, is that those texts and photos supposedly disappear shortly after being received by another user.
But the Federal Trade Commission accused the service of not only over-promising and under-delivering on this notion of vanishing messages, but that it also deceived users about the amount of personal data it collected. [More]
Verizon Takes Away Unlimited Picture And Video Messaging, Point Of $20 Unlimited Prepaid Plan
By 9.21.11
Sam uses a prepaid Verizon plan that includes unlimited messaging and more expensive voice minutes. But that’s okay: “messaging” even includes picture and video messages. What more could the modern mobile phone user ask for? At least, until Verizon changed how the plan works and began charging per recipient of your text messages. [More]
MMS For iPhone Rollout Begins, 2 Weeks Early
By 9.12.09
Reports are showing up online that AT&T is beginning a slow rollout of official MMS functionality to seemingly random iPhone users, from Manhattan to Idaho. The official start date is September 25, but it makes sense that the company would implement the change gradually to make sure the network can handle it.
By 1.25.09
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Rumor confirmed: AT&T has indeed dropped the price of its unlimited data and messaging plan by $5—the new cost is $30/mo, and $10/mo to add a second phone under their shared family plan. Unless you plan on texting more than 200 messages a month, however, it’s not worth it (you can get unlimited data + 200 messages for $20). [Engadget Mobile]
Sprint's 'Unlimited' Messaging Package Charges You Per Message
By 1.17.09
Sprint offers an “Everything Messaging Family” package that promises “unlimited nationwide, text, picture and video messaging to anyone on any network.” The catch? Unlimited seems to mean “you have the capability to send messages, but you’ll still have to pay for each message you send.” Erica has called in twice to clear up the mistake, but the CSRs are telling her it’s not a mistake. Oh. Well then, is it a lie?
Citi Credit Card Cautions You Against Spending
By 9.30.08
Citi’s been burned enough by its cardholders’ profligate spending, apparently. Check out the message on this activation sticker on a new card. We like the inclusion of a sort of Yin-yang background, as if to remind us that debt and repayment are equal elements of the consumer credit world. A balance must be maintained! Just, you know, not so high a balance that you can’t make your monthly payments.(Thanks to Jerry!)
Why Is Sprint Blocking MMS Picture Messages On High-End Phones?
By 2.8.08
Sprint appears to be blocking MMS picture messages on certain phones, specifically high-end ones like the HTC Touch. Although the phones are fully capable of sending and receiving such messages, Sprint sells them with the required features disabled, and each time a third-party developer comes up with a software solution that solves the problem, Sprint swoops in and “fixes” it so that it no longer works.
