texting | mysms blog

December 19, 2012

Introducing mysms for iPad

Posted in mysms news by mysms

Maybe you have read yesterday’s post about our brand new Android tablet app, and thought what about us iPad users? No worries, we did not forget about you! Here it is, our Pre-Christmas present for you, the first of its kind, our mysms iPad app is available on the Apple App Store.

The brand new mysms app for iPad

Truly native, simply beautiful

If you have used our web app on the iPad before, you will be pleased by the native iPad version. Instead using the existing HTML5-version, we have built everything natively from scratch. This led to a huge boost in performance that you’ll notice as soon as you open the app. We worked hard to provide you with the same smooth experience that you know from our web app, but added native elements that you love on your iPad, such as native notifications and gestures. On top of that we tweaked the design and usability so that the app just looks and feels right. You’ll know what we mean as soon as you give it a try.

Packed with features

mysms for iPad is as feature-rich as the web app. You can send and receive messages on your iPad and take advantage of the bigger display and keyboard. Your messages are synchronized with your smartphone, meaning you can start a conversation on your iPad, and continue anytime on your phone. Texts and pictures to other mysms users are free of charge and sent via your mobile data connection or WIFI. If you combine the iPad app with an Android phone, you can even send texts via your mobile carrier and reach every contact from your address book via SMS.

It’s easy to get started

If you are a first time user of mysms, you need to download one of our phone apps first and create a mysms account there. Your messages are then synced to our mysms cloud and you can access them from any web-enabled device, e.g. your iPad. Now is the time to download mysms onto your iPad, enter your number and password, and start texting like never before 😉

We are very curious what you think of our work of the last few months. Let us know in the comments!

December 18, 2012

Our native Android tablet app is available!

Posted in mysms news by mysms

We’ve got exciting news for our Android users: The native mysms app for Android tablets has just arrived at the Google Play Store! You can now use all advantages of a native developed mysms app on your Android tablet.

mysms for Android tablet is here

Text conveniently on a larger display

Once you have created a mysms account on your phone, our brand new Android tablet app allows you to send and receive texts and multimedia messages on your tablet. All your messages are synced to the cloud and can be accessed from any web-enabled device. Enjoy the large screen and the full-sized portable keyboard for creating, sending and receiving free mysms friends messages or text via your mobile carrier (mysms Android phone users only).

Customize the settings as you prefer

mysms is optimized for landscape and portrait mode. In portrait mode you can choose whether you’d like to display the contact pictures or if you’d like to use a greater width to have a better overview of your conversations. You’d like to receive a different ringtone for incoming messages? No problem, you can also change it in the preferences.

hide contact pics in portrait mode

Manage your messages and send any file you like

It’s easy to forward or delete messages (just tap and hold them) and you can also send any file via your tablet. Moreover, if you’ve already connected your mysms account to Evernote on your Phone, desktop or web app, your messages will be saved in Evernote as well.

attach any file

Use mysms on any device

mysms is becoming increasingly platform-independent and is currently available for Android Phone, iPhone, Windows Phone, Mac, Windows, Chrome and Android tablet. Additionally, there will be some great news for our iPad users soon!

So, give it a try and download it now!

December 3, 2012

Happy Birthday, SMS!

Posted in mobile news by mysms

Congratulations! Text messaging celebrates its 20th birthday today. Hard to believe that it’s been already 20 years, when it was possible for the first time to send 160 characters via a mobile phone. Can you imagine living without text messaging? In this case you wouldn’t be able to send short updates when coming too late or arrange meetings without making a phone call. Text messaging makes us more flexible in our day-to-day communication. But how did it all start and what will be the role of SMS messaging in the future?

Let’s celebrate!

The origins reach back to 1984, when a Finish engineer started a discussion about the idea of a messaging service at a mobile telecom conference in Copenhagen. However, the first text message was sent on 3^rd December 1992 by the Vodafone technician Neil Papworth. “Merry Christmas” were the words he sent via the new transmission technology Short Message Service (SMS). These two words were the foundation for a service which people can’t imagine living without nowadays.

Texts or short messages (SMS) are a way of communication to exchange messages via mobile phones or from a computer to mobile phones. The word “short” stands for the maximum of 160 characters that could be used at its start. At the beginning text messaging was free of charge and mainly used to inform subscribers about waiting voicemails. As you can see on the chart, it took a while until texting became the most popular form of communication. From the first sent message in 1992 SMS traffic increased steadily up to over 8 trillion texts in 2012. Nowadays, every single user of a mobile phone is able to send and receive texts. And with the emerging trend towards using smartphones instead of simple feature phones (and the associated constant internet connection), new technologies like instant and OTT messages are becoming increasingly important. Just like with mysms friends, it is possible to transfer messages worldwide for free via data connection. In addition some implementations for the keyboard, like T9 or Swype have been relieved the handling of text messaging and made it more convenient over time. Furthermore, you are able to send even more than 160 characters and you could send them via any device nowadays.

When we started with mysms our goal was to bring the advantages of both worlds (SMS and instant messaging) to one single product. By using our app you can send not only texts via your mobile carrier, but also instant and multimedia messages (mysms friends messages) to other mysms users via data connection. In addition, times where you have to write messages on a small keyboard on your phone are also enhanced by the possibility to write texts and messages on your computer or tablet as well.

Despite the fast moving world of technology, texting is still the world’s most used form of digital communication, over 8 trillion texts are sent every year and it still connects more people than every other messaging service e.g. Facebook or Twitter. Moreover, text messaging has been proven to be as addictive as smoking cigarettes. We believe texting will continue to be popular in the future and will be endorsed by instant and OTT messages.

We are looking forward to congratulate the SMS to its 30^th Birthday.

August 23, 2012

What Happened to Our Mobile Manners?

Posted in Just for fun by Lisa Leitner

Have you ever found yourself replying to a text message or an email during a business meeting or a dinner conversation? Let me tell you, Emily Post would not be amused with your behavior. Neither would she like to hear that 3 out of 4 adults text while driving nor that 63 % of Americans answer phone calls while going to the bathroom. However, this seems to be the inconvenient truth about our mobile manners of today.

A recent survey from Online College shows that our mobile manners are not quite as sophisticated as we might think they are. It starts with the young (9 in 10 students text while they are in class), but likewise affects the old (15 % of all polled adults said they will answer a call while they devote themselves to the most beautiful matter in the world). We seem to forget everything our parents taught us about etiquette when it comes to our beloved smartphone.

My personal favorite result is that 3 in 4 Americans use their cell phones while in the bathroom. For Emily Post’s sake please tell me you’re not reading this in the bathroom.

August 16, 2012

Why we love text messaging

Posted in messaging by Lisa Leitner

From a 21^st century point of view, text messaging might look like an old technology. With the revolution of apps you read headlines like “Text messaging is dead” or “Messengers kill SMS” on tech blogs every now and then. However, fact is that the long history of text messaging is one of the reasons why we regard texts as a reliable and pleasant way of communication. Our sympathy for text messages is so great that we might also say: we love text messaging.

A survey conducted by Acision found that 92 % of smartphone users still send text messages. This makes texting one of the most widespread methods of communication in the world. Also, against all odds, SMS usage is increasing with about 8,000,000,000 texts being sent every day.

Text Messaging Differences I – Women vs Men

While both obviously love text messaging, they use it for different purposes. Men send texts for practical reasons: It’s fast, you can avoid nasty phone calls and come straight to the point. Women use texting to deepen relationships. On average, their texts are longer and contain more emotional messages. 54 % of all polled women said they text their beloved “I love you”-messages to cultivate human relations.

Text Messaging Differences II – Young vs “Mature“

Also, the purpose of texting is different across different age groups. While 18 – 25 year-olds send about 133 texts a week mainly to their friends, 55+ year-olds use text messaging to stay in contact with their family. Very interesting fact: Only 19 % of under 25s use services like Skype or Twitter on their mobile, but 94 % of them send text messages.

The main reason people prefer to send a text rather than using another kind of communication is reliability and trust. 46 % of respondents claimed that texting is more reliable than other messaging services and 69 % said that they would be lost without text messaging. Other reasons why we love text messaging are its immediacy, speed of delivery and reach.

While sending a message via a social media platform feels less immediate to many smartphone owners, text messages often elicit instantaneous responses. Internet psychologist Graham Jones says: “People today are also compartmentalising their messages as they all have a specific purpose. Email is being used much less for personal communication and much more for business, whereas social networks tend to remain a medium to message friends and peers, sometimes on a one-to-many basis.”

Also “Text messaging remains a functional communication tool, but still with a personal aspect, which could explain its longevity,” he continues. “You can say things in text you wouldn’t necessarily say on another communication tool. Although there has been an influx in new broadband-based messaging services, which people are certainly experimenting with, people are differentiating services according to their need and using them as complimentary services as opposed to stopping usage of one or another messaging service.”

It’s great to have a choice, and it’s great to rely on a service; a service that lets us connect with our family and friends on a very personal level, is fast and reaches out to every phone all over the world. That’s why we still love text messaging.

Why do you love text messaging? Let us know in the comments.

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