Free SMS (almost) on iPhone using Twitter

The average cost of an SMS message is 25 cents. During the day, we use to have small dialogs when you send multiple messages starting with a single one. The carrier earn money from their clients in this case more than a call and your bill may come higher than expected.

Push message sent to iPhone using Twitter

However if you are using iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad you can save money in a creative way, since you always have an internet connection, 3G or Wi-fi. That’s our plan: use an iPhone application that can be always connected (through Push technology) and alert on screen like an SMS.

This idea is not 100% new: some time ago an application called Ping did almost that. The problem in this scenario is that the notifications didn’t work every time and you could only do this using an iPhone with the application installed.

The solution we propose is use an existing service that can send and receive messages using not only the iPhone so we got Twitter. You can setup your iPhone to notify you when someone mention, retweet or send a direct message. Simply download the application Boxcar (free) and register your Twitter account.

The application promises to display the alert, even when iPhone is in standby mode, with 30 seconds to 2 minutes delay (this time is less than some carrier, believe us). You can set the alert sound and whether it should open some other application to send a response.

The advantage of using another service is that the other person don’t need to have an iPhone (like Ping) and if defined on Twitter, you still can receive the message though e-mail and answer it on the site.

Although you must always be on Internet, especially for those who have signed for data plan or wave an Wi-fi network available all day, this service can surely save money.

Featured, iPhone

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