Webtext – The o2sms for iPhone

Today, my first iPhone app was released to the App Store. Webtext, an SMS (text messaging) client for the the iPhone.

Like o2sms, it allows customers of o2 Ireland, Vodafone Ireland and Meteor Ireland to use their free “web text” allocation to send messages nationally (internationally in the case of o2). Unlike o2sms, this application supports many other providers (hence the move away from the name “o2sms”), so users in other countries can use their local provider’s web text allocation.

What’s more, Webtext supports actual proper bulk SMS providers, like Clickatell and VoipBuster. These providers expose an API, which is infinitely more robust than screen scraping. I bought a tenner’s credit on Clickatell and I’m using it to send international messages from Spain to Ireland. This reduces the cost from €0.60 to €0.03 per message, and all from the comfort of a familiar looking app. It even appears to come from my real number, so replies arrive as normal.

I’m aware of Vincent Coyne’s Eirtext. I think Webtext improves on his effort by providing a familiar interface and by supporting many more providers. 

This app is free for the next while. Check out Webtext and let me know what you think (and leave some positive reviews in the App Store)!