TextNow Reviews

This was a good app. Today I didn’t receive 2 critical text messages. Instead, I received 2 text messages from your company saying that now I must pay to receive text messages…if I have a particular version of your app. I spent an hour hunting for my app’s version # without success. 1. What is the version # of my app? The emailed link to purchase the text messaging capability didn’t work. 2. Is that because I have the wrong version? How do I receive text messages as in the past? I spent an hour searching for a tech support phone or email without success. 3. How do I contact tech support? In trying to sign up for the text messaging plan, I accidentally purchased “lock in your #.” I don’t need that service 4. How do I get my $ back? Or, better yet, how do I get the plan switched from “lock in your #!” to “text messaging.” Your website and the Apple App store say that both phoning and texting are free, which apparently is untrue. 5. Isn’t false advertising illegal? - I reinstalled TextNow today to be sure I have the latest version. I have sent multiple text messages from my phone - not one has come through. Calls works, but not text messages.

I’ve been using Text Now for a few months. At first, it started out like a great substitution for the more expensive (and horrible) Sprint service I’ve been wasting my money on. Since they both use the same network, I’d rather pay less for unreliable and sketchy phone service. But believe me, Text Now service is not at all reliable either. You won’t get much reception indoors, your texts msgs may or may not send, and there will be times when you won’t get phone calls. Anyway, my rant today is because this app took things to a new low. Today my bill is due and they SHUT ME OFF on the day it’s due. AND it’s a Saturday, so I can’t transfer money from my savings account into my (bill paying) account until Monday. I take complete ownership for not remembering about transferring sooner. Thanksgiving was just 2 days ago and I lost all sense of time in the planning. But to give NO notice is going too far. Since I drive for Uber, I cannot work or earn money either until Monday as well and I’M FURIOUS!!! They are screwing with my livelihood. So PLEASE reconsider your choice to use this service. Don’t be dumb like me. Find another way. Or someday you’ll be writing a scathing review too.

I have used TextNow for several years. First stated having issues 1 year ago where my number was almost lost even though I had paid the subscription to keep my number. Now this week when I try to use the service I receive a message that my account has been terminated for violation of terms. However I have barely used TextNow in the last few months except for every once in a while and I am definitely sure I violated no terms as I have been using TextNow for several years. When I contacted customer service they informed me the account was closed for violation but are not able to tell me what the violation was and there is not appeal process to get reactivated. It is my feeling that they just wanted the subscription fee and then wanted to recycle my number to someone else. I do not recommend TextNow to anyone due to sketchy business practices and no business integrity.

Update: They contacted me to try and resolve issue supposedly but would only say sorry we can't help your account terminated even though I had paid the yearly subscription fee to keep my number. TextNow use to be good, however as many of the other reviews have stated it is now a total scam to get money then free up cell number to other to try and scam over and over.

I have been having issues for months now, it would freeze or crash on my iPad mini 4 with the newest version of iOS and the last couple weeks have been horrible! Not getting important texts, or phone calls. It was like my ringer was off, it wasn’t! Once I opened TextNow it would say 4 Missed Calls, and it never rang! I tested it with a friends phone and called my apps number, it rang on his end but not on my end. After uninstalling and reinstalling TextNow , restarting before reinstalling, it has gone from being pretty reliable to wondering if I’ll be getting my phone calls! It went from a 4 star App to a 2 star app, and WoW, did I mention adds? Come on Text Now, Do we need adds flashing and popping up? No wonder TextNow keeps closing when I go to open it, TextNow is trying to run adds before loading messages! To much running makes apps crash!, UPDATE MAY 17th 2020, I’m still not getting notifications of incoming calls, my Alert goes off for a second and stops. Then a friend called and said somebody answered but wasn’t me. How’s this possible?? I’m not happy with this. Why is this happening? Who’s answering my calls when I’m not?

I paid the $4.99/yr for locking my number, and now all of a sudden a month later i click on TextNow to try and look at what number i have so i can log back into my Telegram account that i needed it for, and it will only ask for me to choose a new number. It’s clearly a glitch though, because it will show the list of texts i have gotten on the number i already paid to use and keep for less than a second before the other screen pops up in front of it. I can’t get around it.

Update: i went back and forth with customer service over email and provided them the information they asked for, and a week later even after i ask if there’s been any update on progress, i get nothing back. I found out whoever has my number now deleted my telegram account to make their own with the number, so trying to keep it is just pointless now. Don’t use TextNow. They put receiving verification codes and “locking in” your number so that people don't take your information or number behind a paywall, but then it doesn’t even lock it in! I still got my number reassigned to somebody else and they were still able to log into my account and delete it so they could make their own. Waste of time and money. It took me two weeks of being logged out of my account for me to finally realize that all of this has been for nothing.

#1: USE TALKU OR DINGTONE!! always guaranteed credits to earn through watching videos and playing games-very interactive! And one of the best for free-yes free international calls and texts that actually go through! It’s not perfect 100% of the time but it’s gotten so much better. Avoid this app. You’re lucky if you can earn one credit a day. Talking to support today made me want to literally rip my eyes out because I was going in circles with someone who clearly didn’t read or understand not only the initial issue, but know what’s in their FAQs and articles. 1st, they have a submit a request feature through TextNow , but then when you submit a request, you get a canned reply through email saying they don’t use that anymore and to utilize chat instead. Then you need to remove anything that is obsolete from your app!! A customer should not be going in circles to try to get help. I had to explain to this person practically 3 times what I was referring to. For example-they say you can complete offers for credit but there is nowhere to ever do that! So do not refer me to Tap Joy when you don’t even offer the opportunity to earn credits for offers! It was just awful… I wind up turning off the message communication with this person because my patience was depleted.

Idk what happened to TextNow but it’s been complete garbage the last few days (both the iPhone and the iPad versions of TextNow ). It completely overloads the device’s operating system or something because when I try to open TextNow whatever media is playing in the background (and would normally continue to play in the background) stops playing. This wouldn’t really bother me if it was the only problem, but from there it only gets worse. TextNow freezes and will not respond to any taps. I’ve tried task killing TextNow and then restarting it but nothing changes. I’ve also tried doing a soft reset/force re-starting the devices, and then trying TextNow again to see if it’s working, but that hasn’t helped either. At first I thought it was my phone but then I realized the same thing was happening on my iPad too, so it must be TextNow itself because I’m not having any issues like this with any other apps.

I really wish/hope the developer fixes TextNow because this was my favorite messaging app (before the update). But now that it’s completely unusable I’m going to have to try out some other apps and see if I can find a suitable alternative. Goodbye (for now?) this app ✌️

At the end of December I decided to purchase the $4.99 a year for the service of this app but I’ve been with them since maybe August. Well ALL of a sudden today I noticed that as I am receiving messages from my classmates and family and friends, I noticed that when I actually go to reply back that their message is not there??? I figured okay maybe I should update my phone and TextNow but after I did that I STILL am not able to see anyones messages inside of this app app but only in my notifications?! I even out of curiosity, canceled the yearly subscription and then repurchased the same subscription and the this app app still is displaying the same issue and now I’m out of an extra $4.99. I am a college student, I’m broke and I use this phone service to contact potential employers. I was recommended by my dear sister to use TextNow because I am extremely pressed on cash. I gave TextNow a 1 start because I’ve spent money on TextNow not once but twice and this issue is still on ongoing even after a supposed update of TextNow today, LITERALLY. This is a VERY OUT OF NOWHERE GLITCH that needs to be looked into and fixed as soon as possible. PLEASE fix TextNow as soon as possible.

I trusted this app for a couple of years until I heard you connect to their wireless data. Yes it works with WiFi but I decided to try the free wireless data and bought it for $10 and the same day I received my activation kit, I decided to cancel it because of some sketchy stuff that was going on with the SIM card not working and my device not connecting to their wireless data it said no refund but on their website before you buy the activation kit they advertise that they will give you a 30 day return refund and you get your money back but that’s a total lie I got no refund as it stated in the email (which had no reply) meaning I can’t reply to whoever sent that email so now I just lost $10... this is a total scam please don’t fall for it you’re just going to lose money do not fall for their free wireless plan or go with any of their plans. It’s all sketchy and just fake advertisements to get your money & improve their app. Something else I also found sketchy about this app is that I’ve been looking for a customer service number/email and I couldn’t find anything it just takes me to a site that answers irrelevant questions. SMH BIG FAILURE!!!

TextNow is great. Especially for me because I have an iPad, which means I cannot text phones from Samsung etc. TextNow is good because I could text my friends with phones from other providers. But, I faced many issues such as sometimes I would click on TextNow and it would shut me out and I would be back on the home screen after being in TextNow for about 3 seconds. I do get a lot of spam calls and a lot of people I don’t know txt me. It is really glitchy and sometimes I send messages and the person I am texting did not receive it. Another thing I didn’t like was I didn’t receive notifications most of the time when people texted me. One day I went on TextNow and all but the contact names went black. It shut me out of TextNow and I was back at the home screen. I tried many times getting back on TextNow , but it never worked. Then I got back on about a couple months later and I was logged out of my account! I can’t get back on and I don’t know what to do!! All of my text messages with my friends and family are gone. I would not recommend TextNow... it has just brought me so much anger and unless they fixed something with a magical update I don’t know if it’s going to be any good because I WAS LOGGED OUT OF MY ACCOUNT AND CAN’T CHECK FOR YOU. Hope this helped.

this app is a great idea and provides a great service essentially - that you can have a free phone number and call North America from anywhere in the world -however the user experience is pretty bad. TextNow is slow, extremely glitchy, and the ads are meant to overwhelm your experience. The ad situation has gotten substantially worse in recent months. The standard bad ad experience on TextNow is that the ads pop up on the home screen constantly and they are hard to close. But recently I had the experience that video ads start playing through my calls and as the call time progresses the interval between the time the video ad plays gets shorter and shorter. So what happens is you're talking to someone and then an extremely loud ad (way above the call audio volume) starts playing over your call. You can shut it down but it will just start back up again a few moments later. Really unbearable. I am keeping TextNow because it's in its development stages and I'm hoping it will go in a different direction when it receives more funding. As a traveler it's a great tool for me, just wish it wasn't such a harrowing tool to use.

I do love TextNow I use it all the time but sometimes when I press the hang up button it is really slow and glitchy and when I go to TextNow it will shut me out of it when I’m only in TextNow for 3 seconds but again I use TextNow all the time but I also get a lot of random numbers call and text me and it does get super annoying but I love TextNow so so so much I use it so much and it’s just really slow and glitchy but I mean it is what it is also TextNow is very very slow and glitchy when I go on TextNow it will take a while for it to actually load even when I full bars of WiFi’s and everything I think maybe it’s just really slow and I noticed if I get more than 13 phone numbers it will delete my most recent person I texted and if I don’t use my app for a 3 days it will log me out and say I need to get a new number I have spent so much time on TextNow and it’s not that good of quality I hop you guys the best to try and fix it and TextNow would be the bomb but as of right now it’s not such a great app🥰!

I’ve had this app for over 4 years and counting. I used to love TextNow because the ads while they were there (as they ought to be since it’s a free service), they were non intrusive and bearable. It was a tiny banner ad in between messages in the inbox . That’s it.

However in the past few months it has gotten so bad that I’ve considered simply uninstalling TextNow and moving on . I’ve always used this service as a secondary number for non personal stuff (I even paid to get my number locked in) , but now it seems it’s not even worth it.

To say that the ads are very frequent would be a total understatement.. it literally seems that after every call made , you get blasted with a 20-30 second full screen ad (which you cannot skip or close or do anything with other than wait it out) . Why should I have to deal with that so often ? It never used to be like this and if it had to come to the point in which full screen ads like that had to be implemented , then ok if it was once in a while fine , I would just deal with it. But every other phone call or 30 seconds of going through messages? Nah that’s too much I’m sorry. You guys sold out plain and simple.

I’ve been a this app user for many years, ever since 2011, and haven’t run into so much trouble until recently when their ads just became unbearable. I believe in ads and have even tried buying their service several times. However, the ads are ruining the experience. Whenever I enter TextNow and tap on a contact and begin to type a message TextNow just freezes. I sometimes end up calling my boss on accident due to the horrible lag. The actual texting and calling is good otherwise. The texting is far better than the calling at times. I have unlimited data, but this apps can go from working great to not working at all in seconds. I can see that it’s the ads causing all the issues. My fix would be to have ads take up less data or use less ads or use a better way to get these ads on TextNow . Please fix this devs. It gets very confusing and frustrating when I can’t use TextNow due to all the ads. I will try to get a plan to remove the ads, but the normal service is advertised as free. I do hope you can fix the interface to run smoothly once again. I will return to TextNow when it gets better.

So I work really really hard but like a lot of people- sometimes in between paydays comes that phone bill. Which can be that little extra that’s either going to get you by or give you phone. Of course I choose to use it to get by! Downloading TextNow- I have Wi-Fi at home and at work. So while I’m here or at home I can call my FS card to check my balance (which can be VERY important when I need milk for my 2 yr old ect;) and I’m unsure of what I’ve got- and avoid embarrassment in the store being declined for misunderstanding my balance. It can be helpful for a lot. I need it for little thank God but where I need it- it comes in clutch like any phone I PAY for to make calls. I don’t use it as my main use but it’s definitely 1000% my go-to in a tight spot. Thank you Creators!
(If you use this for texting pics, videos, voicemail; I think you pay for it but it’s like $10 a month…whiiiich is still $50 MINIMUM cheaper than a lot of plans elsewhere- I only use it for sparingly important phone calls in-between paydays so it’s perfect for users like me and that function- really is free.)

I am not sure if it is my phone, or the phones of my contacts. At times, even when I seem to send them messages, they inform me that they do not receive them. Or when I call them, they say they do not receive a record of me calling them. I like the style and interface of TextNow , it is very appealing, but it is just these small inconveniences that make the experience troublesome. One feature that I would love to see is that when you send someone a message/text, that there would be a little notification that says “John has seen your message” or a simple little “seen” notification. Like on Instagram messaging. That would make TextNow much better, and would restore my confidence in it. It is a great app, and I would take it over any other competitor, just fix these things, and add that feature, and I would eagerly share with more of my friends and family. Thank you! 😁

I absolutely love the text no app! It’s convenient and steady. FMy family and I have used it for 5 years! What I like about bout text now is the fact that no matter what , I can always access it through any device I choose to use whenever I choose to use it! Another great thing about text now is when I do have to access it through a secondary device all my info and previous messages are still there! That is super convenient being I lose everything especially phone numbers and messages! But text now keeps all that stored and it’s accessible to me 24/7. Sometimes paying my and my family’s phone bills can be very stressful at times because it’s expensive and I’m not able to get all of them payed at the same time. So having text now as a back up or second number. I along with my children Can assure my friends and family that they’re still able to contact me through texting or calling. Thanks text now!🤗

I had text now app for a long while and then I caught wind of their free cell service, I ordered a sim card and I installed it in my iPhone and activated it. Once I activated the sim card I went down the street and I was able to make and receive high quality audio calls and the texts send and receive fast, you truly get free cell service yes $0.00 with no WiFi I am able to call and text this is a wonderful thing!! I decided to transfer my cell number over to this app and it was a smooth and pleasant process that took less then 24 hours!! I transferred my number from Straight Talk to this app.
There is no cell data included with the free plan but that’s ok with me I’ll just use the internet on WiFi, although if you wanted cell data this app has affordable options.
What’s the catch you say ? There are ads that pop up from time to time when you call or text but besides that there is no catch!!
I highly recommend this it’s great

Updated. I was all wrong. Tech support was able to send instructions to fix my situation. It was working within 5 minutes. That’s all it took. Live Chat support was very supportive. Issue resolved and rating updated. Thank you. The offer is truly free no strings attached. Thanks again. (It offers free unlimited calling and texting with one time purchase of the SIM card kit on our nationwide network. So it says on the advertisement. There’s an asterisk in the advertisement however when you scroll down you can’t find the notice for the asterisk. It’s only after purchase I realize the SIM card purchase only activates the free calling on WiFi only portion of the plan. Free texting remains the same on WiFi only. My phone did not work outside. You need to purchase the AdFree+ plan or a data plan to have your phone work outside. The SIM card kit offer page she be updated without any words mentioning or referencing your nationwide network. That is highly misleading and disingenuous. It’s a classic bait and switch.)

I have been a customer for the last two years and TextNow helped make the most difficult time of my life more bearable. When COVID hit the city I liv4d in in March of 2020 I was unable to pay my $55 phone bill and as a result they turned off my phone . FortunatleyI had#iFi and came across TextNow . Thanks to TextNow I was able to notify paramedics and my others hospice nurse when she was in the final stages of COVID and then family and friends when she passed the following day. I’ve tried other apps and was very disappointed. One in particular charged me $ 10and then wouldn’t let me make more than a couple of calls or texts and then said I had reached my,limit ! I l0ve TextNow and so grateful it helps people like me make it through the toughest of times without having to lose contact with others when it can be a life or death situation. Thank you much for being so beneficial to people who cannot make ends meet9n the middle of a global pandemic you’ve been a beacon of light !! Thank you so much for all you do to help without being greedy.

Once again, I missed an important call because the phone didn't ring. My sound was on and all the way up. This is NOT ok. When calls are IMPORTANT, they need to answered IMMEDIATELY. Calling back, even 30 seconds later, does not rectify the missed call in a lot of cases! I made a review about this before and although this does not happen all the time, it happens enough for me to be extremely furious about this. Text Now basically determines the quality and opportunities given in my life based on if my phone will ring when Im getting a call that could change everything; but only if answered. So many people will not leave a message and will move on to the next person if their call isn't answered. Phone tag is not appealing.

I cant afford a phone plan and my home phone is not a reliable option either. I cannot be ON my phone 24/7 in order to catch a phone call. The problem could be my phone, as my email does not always sound either, when I get an email. But all my settings are correct. I have an Iphone 6s and if the problem is my phone being a dinosaur, that cant be fixed either. I just updated TextNow and will see if this does anything.

Sooooo I’ve had this app for a few years, the more they try to fix bugs the worse it gets! The ads,are messing up the ap,ok its free,but don’t make it mess up the ap! I always missed calls now,never had that before! The fact you can’t send video is a lil wack! But again it’s free! You can’t send more than one picture at a time! But again it’s free lol! Just recently I have noticed when you try to send a picture,it automatically picks the last picture you took! I DO NOT LIKE THAT! Because sometimes I don’t know itnsent someone that picture! It freezes a lot more now thn last year! Also this app,needs to cut down on people making multiple this app accounts,just to spam people and harass people ,start getting device info,and ips,and only allow one this app per email,device,and ip,and make them verify an email! That will help a great deal! So for it being free when you are connected to WiFi is good! Ok it’s now dec29,2018 TextNow is even more horrible ,it’s blocking numbers I didn’t block ,being very slow! And deleting texts I didn’t delete ,please work on where we can block entire area codes,telemarketing calls are becoming insane! I’ve got 100 numbers blocked from the same company

I’ve had TextNow for seven months. At first it worked fine with no issues whatsoever, but after the first couple months my calls started disconnecting consistently. After checking the call history log I realized that it was exactly at five minutes. Sure enough, after conducting an online search it stated that the calls were limited to five minutes if you were considered to be a “have a user” (whatever that’s supposed to mean). So they allow you to use the “free” app, but they limit you. Several months have gone by and TextNow performance is deteriorating to the point where I literally don’t want to use it at all anymore. Calls are dropping constantly. Static on the line. People that I’m speaking with are constantly complaining that they can’t hear me. I wouldn’t recommend TextNow to anyone. I’ve switched to another free app and it works perfectly with no issues whatsoever. TextNow is absolutely a disaster. If I could give it -5 stars I would.

So I’ve had this app (w/ ads) for a couple months now, & for the most part, I do not usually have any problems using TextNow . It is mostly reliable, the interface is easy to navigate, & there are not a jarring, annoying amount of ads I have to deal with- compared to other free texting apps. I’ve been able to maintain the same number I recurved when I first signed up & I have no issues signing into my account on other devices, if need be. However, every so often, I will randomly be exited out of TextNow mid-text, sometimes even right after logging in. Although, it’s not a huge issue, it is at times super inconvenient depending on the circumstance. Also, I will be unaware of missed texts or calls a noticeable amount of times. Adding onto that, when answering calls I don’t always hear the caller or they won’t hear me, then the call will drop. These are only a few tech-bugs I’ve ran into, & although they aren’t bad enough for me to want to get uninstall TextNow , I do EXPECT the next update to work on/fix these inconveniences. Please & thank you.

If you buy TextNow like I did to avoid the advertisements you can expect the advertising to continue. I did the free version for a while and thought if I buy it then I won’t have to see the adds again, boy was I wrong. The adds never went away, the only thing that went away was my money from my bank.
TextNow is also slow as heck, it is slow when you send photos, it is slow when you type messages, it’s just slow slow slow.
The pros to having TextNow , I downloaded it on my desktop computer, I can type on a keyboard, I use it for business to text customers about their auto repair, and they think it’s my cellphone and I get to tell them “I’m sorry but I use a texting app to text from my office computer”. This way they don’t get my personal cell number.
So, pros and cons, everything has them. But to pay for an ad free app and they still are there makes me not happy. So keep your money and use the free version, there is no difference.

this app is an amazing app, don’t get me wrong. I can talk to lots of people and I really love it. However, there are some MAJOR issues I’m having. I have had my phone for a little under a year and I am not sure if it’s the phone or TextNow . I get on it and I go to text someone. In the middle of typing, TextNow will suddenly crash. I will go back into it and it doesn’t save the draft. So I have to re-Type everything. That’s an issue that needs to be fixed. Another issue is when I watch a video someone sent me, it’s completely normal. I go off the video and I go to text them right? Well it all the sudden freezes and then a white screen appears, showing a bar at the top and a play/pause button on the bottom, almost like a video. It either crashes the entire app, makes me start all over on typing again, or just gets on my nerves with how often it does this. Another issue is how slow it goes. It’s extremely slow when I first enter TextNow and if I need to send an urgent text, it will take FOREVER to load. Also, when I am listening to background music and I’m trying to text someone, not only will it crash but it messes with the music, making it sound really glitchy and I find it uncomfortable and disturbing. Now, TextNow is great. I love it. I would really love if these issues are fixed! Thank you!

So I have been using this app for a LONG time, and I can say it is one of the best messaging apps I have ever used, I can use it for friends who don’t have their number registered with iMessage. But I have to point out a few things wrong: when I try to start or receive a call, either the caller can hear me and I cannot hear them, or the other way around. I would like to have this fixed because calls can be very important and it is quite annoying. Next thing, sometimes I can’t receive texts. If I was having a conversation with someone, I have to leave their chat and go to the main ‘home’ screen of this app, and wait for them to send a message or for it to come in. It does not happen all the time but I would like to be able to not have to refresh the page etc, to receive messages. I hope this review was understandable and I tried my best to be clear with the issues I am having. Thank you for listening.

I’ve been using TextNow for a couple of months now, and I feel very happy with the results it’s a wonderful tool when you have a small business or you just need a different phone number. The only thing I didn’t like is that apparently the person who had my current number before had a lot of debt, so it took me a while to get rid of all those unwanted calls from Debt collectors that I was getting on daily bases at all times. Other than that I’m very happy with the service, I’m still learning about it, for ex. Now I know that pictures or videos that I received by text are only there temporarily also I know that in order to don’t lose your number you need to upgrade to premium to lock your number or use the service because your number can be revoke due to inactivity. Other than that you service is good, props to the team of this app.

Thank you for this free service I for one certainly do appreciate this when my actual paid phone service is on “vacation “ I live in country and service out here is nearly impossible to have but thankfully for extra security of phone service and WiFi TextNow has not failed me even ONCE voice is actually clearer than paid service I’m currently using due to contract so when expensive contract phone I currently have is up I certainly will be using paid for part of this Text Now app for my future phone service Great service for people struggling with so most costs and free phone and text app is so needed and is blessing for many so again thanks for this free service that makes it possible for so many that can’t afford it otherwise See you soon as paid customer

When I needed to cut down on my expenses I chose to use an app that gave me what I needed from my phone minus the monthly cost. I downloaded the this app app and have been using it ever since. I have had the same number for the entire time and have transferred it to several different phones since 2013. I’m typing this on my Apple X. If you don’t mind receiving calls and text messages only when you’re in WiFi you’re good to go. It works very well with Optimum cable because of all the WiFi Hot Spots. You can make and receive calls and texts on the go. If I ever want to get a phone plan, this app also has the lowest plans that I know. I highly recommend TextNow.

Worthless support, they do not want to help you and ask you questions you’ve already answered. What a waste of time, stop using overseas support!

A waste of time l don't recommend TextNow in at all zero customer support l couldn't activate my SIM card after buying it.