This Week's Sponsor:

Kolide

Ensure that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta.


Textie, Free Texting from Atebits

Since when Twitter announced the acquisition of Twitter for iPhone and Mac, we all started wondering where the hell was Loren Brichter. Did the Twitter folks kidnap him and put him in front of an iMac telling him “Do code”? Who knows, but it’s been a nice surprise to find out that Atebits (Loren’s company) and Borange have released a new application for iPhone and iPod Touch called Textie, which allows you to send free text messages to anyone in the world running the same app.

We’ve seen many other messaging apps in the App Store (like Ping), but none of them made it to my home screen. Why? Because most of them relied on a clunky setup process and featured terrible user interfaces. One had to either go through slow and painful setup instructions or just rely on services that didn’t send messages in time and were so full of additional features that it was easy to miss the real point.

Textie is just about texting, and nothing more. You can attach pictures to texts, see contact’s info, load older messages and that’s it. It’s similar to the native Messages app, but it allows you to text anyone by using his email address (creating a Textie account really takes 2 minutes) and get oust notifications every time a new messages comes in.

The interface is clean an nice, and there’s nothing more to consider besides the selling price of the app: Textie is free when ad supported, and you can remove the ads with a $1.99 in-app purchase.

Unlock More with Club MacStories

Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for over six years.

In that time, members have enjoyed nearly 400 weekly and monthly newsletters packed with more of your favorite MacStories writing as well as Club-only podcasts, eBooks, discounts on apps, icons, and services. Join today, and you’ll get everything new that we publish every week, plus access to our entire archive of back issues and downloadable perks.

The Club expanded in 2021 with Club MacStories+ and Club Premier. Club MacStories+ members enjoy even more exclusive stories, a vibrant Discord community, a rotating roster of app discounts, and more. And, with Club Premier, you get everything we offer at every Club level plus an extended, ad-free version of our podcast AppStories that is delivered early each week in high-bitrate audio.

Choose the Club plan that’s right for you:

  • Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with app collections, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, a Club-only podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;
  • Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus exclusive content like Federico’s Automation Academy and John’s Macintosh Desktop Experience, a powerful web app for searching and exploring over 6 years of content and creating custom RSS feeds of Club content, an active Discord community, and a rotating collection of discounts, and more;
  • Club Premier: Everything in from our other plans and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.