SMS alternatives

So IMO I'm paying too much for unlimited SMS. I believe it's outdated, and seems to be getting more unreliable as years pass. Especially those people who have cheap phones and/or cheap service. I'm thinking of removing my Unlimited SMS and using a free service instead.

Right now I'm considering Google Voice as people can still text me without a special app from their phone (max compatibility), however, reliability still depends on their service. My second choice may be FB Messenger. I'm not a fan of FB, but most people have FB.

I'm curious what everyone here is using, and if you use it more than SMS.

 

We still use BBM for a family group chat... Android/iOS mix.

 

If you want an installed app, I can recommend Facebook lite messenger. I recently had my phone die and my only backup was an iPhone 4 with no sim. FB lite was the only app that supported that old of a device, and out of all apps (even not for communication), it was about the only thing that wasn't choking on performance

 

I have that on my phone now. I think I only use it to keep in contact with one or two people. I like it better than the full messenger app.

 

As a heads up, you've seen what Facebook did with the info inside messenger I assume. No thanks.

 

If I'm not mistaken all of those alternatives are data based. So ok if you have unlimited data, but if not, may be more expensive than SMS?

 

You can send many messages via a messaging app and it'll barely show up on the data count. Unless you're sending many videos and or pictures, you'll probably never be able to tell.

 

I use Textra as an SMS/MMS app.

 

I wonder if WhatsApp is just as bad even though messages are supposed to be encrypted.

 

I use Textra's big brother ChompSMS. Very customizable.

 

This. Messages barely use data. So I can't see why a company would still charge a lot for SMS. I tried to find a way to send SMS over data. Verizon's text app was the closest I could find to achieve this. I could disable the cell service on my phone and send over WiFi only. Seemed to work, but under normal usage, couldn't make the app use data only instead of the standard network.