How to avoid texting charges when traveling internationally (or anywhere, really)

What's App for free messaging

This week I am in Canada for the Wine Bloggers Conference (yep, I’m also a wine blogger over at VineSleuth Uncorked) and I want to keep in touch with friends and family back home, but I don’t want to incur hefty data charges for messaging.

App for messaging internationally for FREE

Back when we hosted foreign exchange daughters, one of them introduced me to Whats App, an app you can download for just 99 cents to your smartphone that uses wifi for messaging, rather than cellular data. She used it to keep in touch with friends back home in Germany, and now I use it when travelling internationally myself to stay in touch for FREE, anywhere I can access wifi. I also use it to message her and other friends in other countries from home or anywhere… it’s super convenient, just like text messaging. Whats App is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia.

Text, photo, video, group messaging

With Whats App you can send messages, photos, video and even send group messages. Plus, as long as you are connected to wifi, you get notifications on your home screen, just like a text message. And did I mention it is FREE, even when out of the country?

So far, this has definitely worked for me. I love keeping in touch… and I really love not paying extra for it.

Any other Whats App fans out there? Or anyone know of any other great messaging apps for keeping in touch internationally?


Comments

One response to “How to avoid texting charges when traveling internationally (or anywhere, really)”

  1. This is great! I’ll have to remember this app!

    Currently, I’m also using Viber for anytime I’m out of the country or to communicate with friends who are traveling outside of the US.

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