Tumblr releases Fan Mail for private messaging

Popular blogging platform Tumblr is out with a new feature Wednesday designed to help its growing user base send private messages to each other.

The new feature is called Fan Mail and it enables Tumblr members to send stylish messages to the blog owners they follow.

“I’m very pleased to introduce Fan Mail, a beautiful new way to share those sweet, inspiring, or otherwise thoughtful notes with your favorite bloggers,” Tumblr founder and CEO David … Continue Reading

Just Kik it: New Kik API lets you share from any app across iOS, Android

Plenty of apps let you share items with friends via Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail, but it’s still difficult to instantly share content within apps — for example, a cool new restaurant on Yelp’s app — across mobile devices.

Kik, maker of a popular mobile messaging app, aims to change that with its new API, which allows developers to quickly implement mobile content sharing within their apps to any of Kik’s 6 million registered users.

The … Continue Reading

How Huddle ripped its name back from Google+ (exclusive)

Google recently rebranded a number of the features on its social networking site, Google+. One of those features was Huddles, the site’s group messaging feature, that is now known as Messaging.

That change was apparently always in the works because Huddle, a collaboration startup based in the United Kingdom, held global trademarks to the name “Huddle.” It’s one of the rare cases where a smaller company has been able to fend off a supergiant with … Continue Reading

Demo: SmartDonuts brings social flair to group messaging

Typical mobile group messaging apps are great for staying in touch with a handful of friends, but they’re not ideal for large group chats, like organizations or companies that want to stay in touch with members and customers. Enter SmartDonuts, a group messaging app built with larger groups in mind.

Developed by Bellevue, Washington-based Inscos, SmartDonuts will not only allow users to chat with groups of friends, it will also let them join groups fitting … Continue Reading

Demo: Qwip offers users an easy voice-to-text messaging service

New startup Qwip, which launched today at the DEMO Fall 2011 conference in Silicon Valley, offers users a way to voice their short updates to Twitter and Facebook rather than be forced to type them up.

Qwip’s new iOS app is basically a voice-to-text messaging service. Users record short, 10-second audio messages (Qwips) or 25-second private messages. Those messages are then converted into text, which can be posted on the Qwip app or elsewhere.

“Voice … Continue Reading

Skype purchasing GroupMe to ramp up group communications

Skype on Sunday said it will acquire group messaging startup GroupMe, a move that will help the company expand its offerings in group-based communications. Exact terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“[GroupMe] complements our existing leadership in voice and video communications by providing best in class mobile text-based communications and innovative features around group messaging that enable users to connect, share locations and photos and make plans with their closest ties,” said Skype CEO … Continue Reading

WTF: AT&T kills $10 texting plan, leaves only pricey unlimited texting

As if you need another reason to hate AT&T, the carrier is apparently planning to end its reasonable $10 texting plan for 1000 messages, forcing new customers to pay more for an unlimited plan or suffer through expensive per-message fees, Engadget reports.

AT&T has confirmed with Engadget that it will offer only a $20 unlimited texting plan, and a $30 unlimited plan for families with up to five lines, starting August 21. Existing subscribers of … Continue Reading

GroupMe’s latest mobile app sports more messaging options, still rocks SMS

I have a bit of a crush on group-texting application GroupMe, which lets a bunch of phone owners jump into an ad-hoc chat room that’s powered by text messages. It’s simple, and best of all, it doesn’t use data.

The company unveiled a new version of its mobile app today, which sports some new messaging features that make it more lightweight. But while the app is powered by wireless data networks, you still get the … Continue Reading

Nokia continues trimming the fat: messaging biz goes to Synchronica

For a mere $25 million in cash, mobile messaging service provider Synchronica has conditionally agreed to acquire Nokia’s email and instant messaging services. This is a bargain deal, because it means Synchronica will acquire six million users across ten North American carriers, including giants AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint. Synchronica’s market will now extend to approximately 1.8 billion end-users worldwide.

The news comes a week after Nokia finalized a deal to outsource its Symbian OS … Continue Reading

SMS is doomed: Google working on Android iMessage, BBM competitor

Just after Apple announced iMessage app in iOS 5, it appears that Google has its own Android messaging client in the works, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The paper didn’t have any additional details on Google’s messaging app, but just like iMesssage, it’s reportedly being positioned as an answer to Research in Motion’s popular BlackBerry Messenger app.

Google’s new messaging app could fall under the Google Talk name, but it will need to do much … Continue Reading

How GroupMe and SMS saved 14 lost souls at Coachella

There’s simple elegance in a text message: Maybe you send an emoticon or an “I love you,” but more often than not it’s just a quick update. It’s like a Tweet, except more ubiquitous. You can’t count on people reading Twitter. With text, you most always can.

That’s why text messaging will never die. It’s short and elegant, and you can send a text to anyone. That’s a lesson I learned this weekend while stranded … Continue Reading

Voice blogging gets a boost as Bubble Motion nabs $10M

Voice and text messaging provider Bubble Motion today announced it has pulled in $10 million in a second round of funding, as the company attempts to work on new tools for 800 million available mobile users.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company technology allows users to click, record and send voice-recorded messages to one or several recipients, all without placing an actual call.

Dubbed Bubbly, the system enables any mobile phone user (on one of our … Continue Reading

DEMO: Send an SMS slideshow with Highnote

Mobile multimedia messaging application Highnote announced today that it is launching an updated version of its app at the DEMO Spring 2011 conference.

The app lets smartphone users send a slideshow to their friends. It’s billed as a way to send more rich media without being constrained by the limits text- and media-messaging have. Naturally, users can only send their messages to other Highnote users.

Users can create messages to single recipients or groups and … Continue Reading