Our pals at Borange today unleashed Textie for Android, bringing cross-platform text and picture messaging from the land of iOS (they've had something in the neighborhood of 1.6 million downloads from iTunes) to our beloved mobile platform. The port is pretty obvious -- you'll see a lot of iOS-type buttons. Try to get over that, because what you've got is a simple and pretty powerful texting appliation that offers unlimited use. Features include:
- Sends unlimited free messages to any Textie user, email address and most U.S. mobile phones
- Sends high quality photos to other Textie users or to any email
- Installs free on Android, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
- Can be installed on multiple devices simultaneously
- Naturally integrates with your existing address book contacts
- Provides access to server-archived messages
- Uses secure SSL for all connections
- Uses battery-efficient Google C2DM Android push notifications
Textie's also done a great job of explaining in the Market listing all of the permissions it uses, so be sure to read that if you're worried about that sort of thing. We've got download links to the free Textie app after the break.
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42 Comments
This is exactly the type of app Google was talking about when they released their design guidelines. Don't make an Android app look like iOS. Just don't.
Google should not allow this app in the Market. They should block it and protect themselves from a design patent lawsuit from Apple. Whoever wants this app should just sideload it.
Google is not responsible for the design of apps in the Market, the design of the apps in the market doesn't matter to them from a legal standpoint.
Google's design guidelines are being issued to address a common complaint about the user interface in android that it varies so much from application to application, personally it's never bothered me.
It has nothing to do with legal issues.
if apple was going to sue anyone it would be the developer of the application, though I find the idea of apple going to the trouble of suing a single app developer extremely unlikely.
There was a 'look and feel' lawsuit several years ago. Lotus Corporation sued other speadsheet publishers because of their similarity to the Lotus 123 spreadsheet. Lotus lost. The judge said the look and feel was okay as long as the Lotus code was not copied. Additionally, Apple Corp was unhappy about Microsoft's Windows operating system. Windows is still with us.
No, users should leave bad reviews until the theme is changed.
I don't think Android Central should promote iOS themed apps either and if they do they should be a little tougher on the devs instead of telling users to "try and get over that".
If devs get rewarded for this kind thing than they are not going to feel motivated to change.
have you played with 1/10th of what the market has to offer? this is a massive improvement, sadly.
Give it up as long as it's efficient, does what it's supposed to do and does it well the "look" of iPhone app is not important.
It is important. Consistent appearance of apps lends a feeling of quality to the whole platform
This.
If i wanted the ugly iOS interface i would own an iPhone.
That being said, who really needs another cross-platform messaging app?
it's much better than most android apps i have save plex, and the g apps.
why are you getting mad now then? there is no near unification of apps ever.
Anyone compare this to Whatsapp? How's the message send/receive rate?
Do we really need ANOTHER cross-platform messaging app? I can't get any of my friends to adopt any of the ones that are already out, Whatsapp, Beluga, ChatOn, and now this.. They all have very redeeming features, but when you can't convince anyone to use them, what's the point?
I agree. For a second people jumped on these but now there are just too many. Be nice if everyone I knew could get on board with just 1, but that is not the case. Plus with the iphone having its imessage feature, a lot of my friends are just fine using that.
Google Talk is always on every Android device.
Has great interoperability with other platforms.
Who needs another?
Fail to see the point of a separate message app... Almost everyone I know has unlimited messaging any ol way... Cross-platform? I thought sms/mms was cross-platform anyway!... Also the Iphone look is blah...
D'oh! :)
Hey Phil, I think you meant this reply for the comment below me :)
They SAY they never read contact data... however, they have access to it, and they are a closed source app. So we never really know.
One thing for sure, using it, all your messages and others' messages to you ARE going through their servers which have content and contact info.
Free comes with a price. Another texting service that collects your information: your phone number and contacts. Your choice :-)
Don't spread FUD. :-/
I'm sorry Phil but Android users should be more aware of such things. It has access to the phone's contacts and has internet access. What's stopping it from sending the info over the net? I don't believe they're legally bound to what they state on the Market. Carrier IQ also stated similar statements and look what happened to it. But like I said, it's up to the user to install/use the app. I'm just raising awareness for better Android experience.
They SAY they never read contact data... however, they have access to it, and they are a closed source app. So we never really know.
One thing for sure, using it, all your messages and others' messages to you ARE going through their servers which have content and contact info.
How does this app compare to Go SMSPro?
In terms of accessing your contacts? My point has been established about that, not discussing it any further... In terms of usage, GO SMS Pro is an SMS/MMS client, like Hancent, that you can use as a replacement of your stock SMS/MMS client. GO SMS Pro doesn't provide free texting like Textie does.
Anyone compare this to Whatsapp? How's the message send/receive rate?
So for someone like my wife and I who use GV for text, have no text plan to use MMS messages, but would like to send pictures, wouldn't Textie be a good solution?
I use whats up and it does send pics but I agree that other platfom phone users dont want to join in. Why can't this app simply integrate all my contacts and texts?
What about my kids who have ipod touches and want to text me?
Other than using heytell, I think something like this would work, but again the market is flooded with tons of apps.
Mine used to use TextNow on an iPod Touch until they started to ask age and gender questions inside the app before it could be used. Instant uninstall! Now they use InfiniteSMS which seems to work OK. Also works on my parents iPad even though it does not scale well to the big screen. Both assigned the user with a regular phone number and allow texting to any other phone number. At least that way it doesn't require everyone to be on the same system and I get to use my unlimited texting. Not sure if either allowed MMS so you could send images.
Still don't understand the point of these apps. Just use IM. If you want to send a pic go to the pic hit share and choose any of the options you have. I think what folks won't admit is that most of these apps cover the limitations in piss poor iOS. I think many apps fall under that category. So.when these devs bring these ugly iOS looking apps to Android and no one uses them since they aren't needed they run off bad mouthing Android saying people don't download apps. Well when your phone does a ton of stuff out of the box you dont need 300 crap apps to make up for it.
>Still don't understand the point of these apps. Just use IM. If you want to send a pic go to the pic hit share and choose any of the options you have.
Because not all devices are phones. My Xoom is not a phone. iPads/touches are not phones.
Not saying I like the idea of a closed-source, for-profit company getting funneled private info, but I understand why concept exists.
Will need a larger user base before i jump in. Free texting on my plan anyway. Tried something like this last year with more downloads than this and no one i knew was using it.
As much as I'd love to drop my txting plan, until their is something that can replace sms/mms completely without requiring you to convince all of your friends and coworkers to use it they are just wasting their time, and work as smoothly as texting does, they are just wasting your time, I pay $10 for unlimited verizon to verizon texting 95% of my texts, and 1000 texts to anyone, none of these texting alternatives are worth the hassle imho.
Sigh, another iOS-ish app.
What's wrong with just using Google Voice? That is free, has other cool features and you don't have to talk other people into using another app, or teach them, or care if it is going to charge them or not, etc...
My thoughts exactly. Aside from MMS (which Google said it's working on), I use GV for all my text messages and voicemail.
MMS is why I don't use GV for texting, I currently use it, but only for visual voice mail
Some people, especially those that already use Android, might not want Google having yet even more access to their private information.
Developers should know better than to make Android applications that mimic iOS design cues. I don't want to feel like I'm using an iPhone. That implies some kind of twisted iPhone envy. I'd rather have an Oedipal complex...
Okay maybe not. But still.
The funny thing is as a developer I can tell you it is a hell of a lot harder to try to make the app look like iOS than it is to make it look like an Android app.
As I understand the features, this is not a full replacement for your carrier's SMS service. You can only exchange with other Textie users. If you are watching a sports event and want to vote by sending a text message, you can't do it with this app.