Good news for Verizon Wireless customers, as they will no longer need their phones to send messages to other phones. The wireless carrier has updated its messaging service such that users will now be able to send text and multimedia messages from computers and tablets. The new messaging service will work in a way similar to many SMS forwarding and cloud-based SMS applications like MightyText, Zipwhip and DeskSMS. However, Verizon Messaging promises to be more secure as the company will not be intercepting messages as they reach the phone, unlike the methodology which other services employ. The messages will be transferred straight from Verizon SMS infrastructure without requiring any phone client.
Verizon Messaging separates the carrier’s SMS service from the device and creates a virtual messaging client in the customer’s web browser or the iOS or Android tablet app. Users can initiate this service by logging in to Verizon’s customer portal and navigating to the ‘my messaging’ section from the computers. Messages will be delivered to the PC as long as the portal remains open. For now, web browsers like Chrome, Safari and Firefox support this facility fully but Internet Explorer users will not be able to receive pop up notifications. On tablets, the service will work like other messaging apps, pushing notifications whenever new text or multimedia messages are received.
At a time when cross platform messaging services for mobile phones like WhatsApp, Pinger, TextMe and TextPlus and platform-specific apps like Apple’s iMessage and BlackBerry Messenger attract more and more users every day, carriers are losing out on traditional SMS revenue. Operators are being forced to expand their communication offerings to the cloud in order to stay in the competition. Verizon is not the first in this category; AT&T and Canadian service provider Rogers have already been innovating in this regard.
One major advantage with this service is that Verizon customers can use it irrespective of the phone they own and need not worry about network signal or phone battery. Don’t have cellular connectivity but have WiFi? You can still text and receive messages. If Verizon continues to build upon these features, mobile networks could see a revolution in terms of the synergy between telecommunications hardware and the internet. The future services may begin virtualizing calling features in the browser or tablet, and in turn may compete with Skype and Google Voice.
