3 Best Free Text Messaging Services [TL;DR]:
- Editor’s Pick: AFreeSMS – this is the best in the list, catering to multiple networks worldwide.
- magTXT – Offer free and unlimited messages to any part of the country, and has a straightforward fill-up form, if you don’t mind the cluttered site and Captcha confirmations.
- Txtlibre – Straightforward, clean site, easy to find the text app. Their service shuts down some times though.
Chikka Text Messenger, popularly known as Chikka here in the Philippines, has shut down their servers last 31st of March, 2018.
A well-known insta-messaging app since the early 2000s, Chikka has been known to exchange billions of messages worldwide; from other parts of the world, to local mobile phones here in the country.
It has grown big enough to be called as probably the first successful integration of a mobile service to a web utility.
Many people on Facebook had reminisced about using Chikka in the early days of SMS, when there were no “unlimited text” plans yet.
But even before its shutdown, there have been TONS of other free text messaging services online that existed alongside Chikka.
Now that its services are gone, these sites are what remains for people to contact their loved ones on emergency situations or for other stuff.
Hence Threebest PH lists here the top 3 best text messaging services that might pose as an alternative to Chikka. Bear in mind that these services are free, and might lack some features you are expecting for these web services to have.
AFreeSMS
AFreeSMS is a web-based text messaging service that can send messages to any phone number worldwide. Yes, it’s WORLDWIDE.
Users have the ability to choose which country they want to send a message to. If they know the exact number of the recipient, and the mobile company is supported by the site, they are good to go.
The only drawback is that a message can only be 160-character long, like a standard one-page old-school text message.
Are you abroad and would want to contact your wife and ask how Junjun’s studies are? Then it’s not a problem. Are you in the Philippines and you would want to message your lover Annita Morales in Mexico? As long as you know their number, you can message them.
magTXT
magTXT is quite overwhelming at first. Not because of the free SMS feature, but because its website is cluttered with LOTS of things that isn’t related to the service you are looking for. It looks like a blog or a news list site.
But if you actually pay attention to the upper right part of the page, then you can see that button there labeled “Free & Unlimited SMS/Texting.”
Just click on it, and a form will pop up that will ask for your name, your recipient’s phone number, and the message you would like to send. It’s easy and direct and good for local messaging. Just don’t mind the constant Captcha confirmations every time you send a text.
TxTLibre
Txtlibre is another locally made web-based free SMS service like the rest of the ones mentioned above. It looks the least cluttered in this list too.
There will be a “phone” app on the left of the site, which asks for your name, your mobile number, your recipient’s phone number, and your message.
Pretty straightforward, and no Captcha confirmation required.
The only thing that irks us though, is that the site’s service shuts down from time to time. If you are in an emergency and the service is down, it kind of ruins the use of the service.
Have you guys been using Chikka before? Are you using any alternatives now? Do let us know in the comments below!
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