Mobile messaging is nothing new, but it quite popular and the more customized it can be to fit user needs the better. Yahoo announced this week that they are expanded their mobile portfolio with the addition of the mobile messaging app called, Hub. The new app can be found in the Google Android Market and is currently in the beta testing mode. Other companies like Apple and BlackBerry have mobile messaging, but those systems are meant for iPhones or BlackBerry smartphones only. The new Hub app from Yahoo will be available for download and allow users to contact anyone, with any carrier, on any smartphone or feature phone.
One nice feature of the Hub mobile messaging app is that text messages are sent over Wi-Fi or data connections which keep the customer from getting any fees added to their accounts, no matter how many messages are sent. Not many carriers charge for text messages these days. If your smartphone or feature phone have a texting plan and run on Android 2.1 or higher, you can use the app. The Hub allows users to send instant texts, group messages and allows free local and international texting to some countries.
Other companies have been working on mobile messaging systems throughout the year. Facebook was actually the most recent, when the company announced their free texting app called Messenger. That announcement came back August of this year. The Facebook Messenger app is available for iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices. Microsoft and Samsung have also jumped on the mobile messaging bandwagon this year. Microsoft picked up a company called GroupMe, which specializes in group messaging and Samsung launched an app like Yahoo’s Hub, called ChatON. Companies that have mobile messaging apps are going to be cutting into the texting revenues for mobile carriers so it will be interesting to see what this all leads to over the next couple years.
Some companies have reported the decline in text messages on their plans because of mobile messaging. Lately, the United States has become the top for sending text messages. The US just passed up the Philippines with each user sending up to 664 messages per month. Other countries have seen the slow decline in SMS revenues, but some experts say that will be offset by the increases in the revenue that carriers charge for monthly plans.
