Textfree

App: Textfree
Category: Social Networking
Stars: ★★★★★


In terms of texting apps, this is the best I've found. Since I'm one of those people who still have prepaid cell phones, the idea of texting for free was pretty awesome when I first got my iPod. I had to go through several apps to find one that actually worked though. With this one, you get to pick your own phone number from several choices when you sign up. You also can put in contact info for the people you're texting, like their picture and name. If you choose not to, then you just see their phone number. They have several themes to choose from for your conversations, all of which have custom smilies which are pretty cool. You can customize the text tone for each person too. 

The app does have ads but they're at the bottom and not really much of a bother. I find them easy to ignore. If they really bother you, you can pay $5.99 a year to have them removed. There's also the option of texting from one Textfree number to another, so you can text your friends without having to pay. The initial text to verify your phone number is the only charge. Apparently, you don't need this anymore since you get your own phone number. I don't have it enabled.

NOTE: This is not the newest version. The newest one has voice and is supposed to be better. However, my iPod doesn't have a mic, so I have no use for the voice feature and thus don't have that version.