


Many phones now come with free messaging apps built in - the two most famous examples being iMessage (for iOS and OS X devices) and BBM (currently only available on BlackBerry devices, though iOS and Android apps are coming soon). The ability to send messages from anywhere in the world using Wi-Fi and send picture messages for free give the apps the edge over the traditional text. Pay as you go customers often still have to pay over the odds for texts, and even contract customers incur extra charges when texting from abroad.

Even though unlimited text messaging is now an almost universally standard feature of UK phone contracts, the popularity of comparatively cheap OTT messaging apps continues to grow.
