Nowadays, the best way to stay connected, socialize with your friends or meet new people who share your interests must be texting. By joining AT&T's (or any other carrier's) texting plans, we can send SMS/MMS/iMessages on our iPhone/iPad/iPod touch. However, if you don’t want to pay AT&T's (or any other carrier's) texting plans, or just want to text messages on your iPod touch and iPad freely like on the iPhone, there are plenty of apps for iOS that will let you do it for free. Actually, IM (Instant Messenger) has increased popularity among young people all around the world. IM messenger app allows us to send unlimited text messages, pictures, and quick voice messages for free with Wi-Fi connection on phone, tablet and any portable devices or on an Internet-connected PC. In today's post, we've gathered our favorite free text messaging apps for iPhone/iPad/iPod touch to transform your iPod touch and iPad into a real texting phone. Check out the 10 best free messaging apps for iPhone/iPad/iPod touch for your reference.

Part 1: 10 Best Free SMS Messaging Apps for iPhone/iPad/iPod

Admittedly, Apple's iMessage is a good messaging apps on iPhone, but it only works well if the text receivers also use iOS devices. So what if you want to chat and talk with people who use Android phones? Actually, there are many other messaging apps for iPhone can be regarded as the best iMessage alternatives. Most of these messaging apps provide free text or SMS services for iPhone and Android. We've rounded up 10 best free SMS messaging Apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

1. Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger is a free SMS messaging app for iPhone, which is used for instant messaging, sharing photos, videos, recordings and group chats. It is free to download and can be used to communicate with friends on Facebook. Users only need to download the app to their portable devices and even desktop, then choose to set up Messenger using their Facebook account or phone number, they can start communication with their friends.

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2. Line

Line is a social media app born in South Korea, but it is especially popular in Japen. This free messaging app for iPhone and Android has become Japan's leading social platform since its launch 10 years ago, with approximately 68% of the population using the app. Line was originally designed as an SMS messaging app, but now evolves and is considered as a super application, which is the center of entertainment, social interaction, and daily activities.

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3. WhatsApp

Launched in 2009, WhatsApp is a free multi-platform messaging application. Users can make video and voice calls, send text messages, share status, etc., simply by connecting via Wi-Fi or cellular. Part of the appeal of this application is that it works with various mobile phone and computer operating systems, so you can continue the conversation anytime and anywhere.

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4. Kik Messenger

Kik is a mobile messaging app for iPhone and Android. It is similar to Viber and WhatsApp, but have some additional features that make them unique. For example, the internal browser encourages people to spend more time in the app. Kik only allows users to contact people who already have a Kik account in the contact list. To add someone as a contact on Kik, you must know their username, which will help minimize contact with strangers or people your child may not know or do not want to talk to.

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5. Viber

Viber is a full-featured cross-platform group messaging application for iOS and Android, which allows users to make free phone calls and send text, pictures, and video messages to other Viber users. It has recently become popular due to its security options, which can keep your messages private. Unlike some messaging apps for iPhone and Android, Viber does not require a username and password. Instead, it will identify you via your phone number.

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6. Discord

The original aim to found Discord is to build communities and talk for gamers. But it became popular during the pandemic. Discord said that they have more than 140 million monthly active users. It is great for talking to your friends while playing games, but it can also be used to create places where people can gather and meet to find other players and socialize.

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7. Snapchat

Snapchat is also an excellent free messaging app for iPhone and Android. Snapchat is one of the most popular social media apps now. In addition to allowing you to connect and follow your friends, Snapchat also offers more cool things like games, news and entertainment, quizzes, as well as photo and video editing tools. Noadays, many children and youth use Snapchat to share their daily moments and what they want.

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8. Wechat

WeChat is the most popular instant messaging apps for iPhone,Android, and Harmony in China, with a monthly user base of over 1 billion. However, if you live outside of China, you are unlikely to use it. Although it only provided a messaging service originally, it has been transformed into an app in which you can perform everything from making payments to calling taxis and even booking flights.

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9. Telegram

Telegram is a popular cross-platform messaging application that is widely used because it provides some enhanced privacy and encryption features as well as support for large group chats. But it has no connection with other social platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp. In addition, if you use the "Secret Chat" feature, you will get the same level of end-to-end encryption - users cannot forward or take screenshots of messages in secret chats, and messages can be programmed to self-destruct.

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10. TextMe

TextMe is a cross-platform messaging application that allows you to send text messages to any phone number in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and 100 countries or regions in the world for free. On the TextMe app, users can send pictures or video messages
Users can send unlimited text, voice, image and video messages for free. Moreover, users can use the location sharing feature to share the location of their device with friends

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Part 2: How to Back Up SMS on Messaging Apps for iPhone to Computer?

SMS plays an important role in our work and daily life. They may record significant information, precious memories, or happy moments that we want to keep forever. However, we sometimes lose messages due to various reasons, such as accidental deletion, iOS update failure, virus attack, system crash, or physical device damage. To prevent such accidental data loss, you'd better back up your text messages from time to time on your computer. In this case, Leawo iTransfer can be used as the best tool for backing up text messages, because it can selectively back up messages instead of requiring full backups like iTunes. Below are detailed steps to back up SMS from iPhone to computer with Leawo iTransfer. First free download and install Leawo iTransfer on your computer.

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  • Leawo iTransfer

    - Transfer files among iOS devices, iTunes and PCs with ease.
    - 6x faster than iTunes
    - Transfer up to 14 kinds of data and files without iTunes.
    - Support the latest iOS devices like iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, etc.
    - Play back, view, and delete data and files on iOS devices.
    - Support Windows & Mac OS

Step 1: Connect your iPhone to computer

Launch the software after installation. Then, connect your iPhone to computer with a USB cable, and the software will recognize your iPhone automatically and immediately.

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Step 2: Choose SMS messages to back up to computer

Select SMS under LIBRARY in the left sidebar. Then, in the right panel, all your text messages will be displayed. Click the checkbox next to each messages to select. You can also search specific SMS through the search box in the top-right corner.

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Step 3: Transfer SMS on messaging apps for iPhone to computer for backup

After selection, click the Export button in the top-middle. In the pop-up window, set output directory and file name. Then, click Save button to transfer SMS for iPhone to computer for backup.

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Part 3: How to Recover Deleted Text Messages on Messaging Apps for iPhone?

It is a good idea to clean up messages to free up storage space on your iPhone. But what if you accidentally delete an important message and don't have a backup? Don't worry, there are some software that is capable of retrieving deleted data on your iPhone. Among the many iOS recovery software, Leawo iOS Data Recovery enjoys a high reputation on the Internet. This software is used to recover lost data from iTunes and iCloud backup, and even iOS devices themselves. Read the steps below to learn how to use Leawo iOS Data Recovery to retrieve deleted text messages. You can free download this software on your computer.

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  • Leawo iOS Data Recovery

    - Recover lost or deleted data from iOS devices, iTunes backup and iCloud backup
    - Retrieve files from iTunes and iCloud backup even for lost or broken iOS devices
    - Restore 12 types of data, including photos, videos, SMS & MMS messages, contacts, call history, notes, calendar, etc.
    - Fully support all iPhone, iPad and iPod touch models
    - 100% safe, accurate and speedy recovery
    - User-friendly interface and simple operations

Step 1: Choose a recovery mode

Connect your iPhone to computer with a UBS cable. Then, launch the software, and it will automatically recognize your iPhone instantly. On the main interface, you can choose to recover deleted text messages from iOS devices, iTunes backup or iCloud backup. If you have a backup in iTunes or iCloud, then choose the corresponding mode between the last two. This software can extract only text messages from iTunes or iCloud backup to retrieve. If you don't have a backup, click the first one.

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Step 2: Start to recover deleted text messages on messaging apps for iPhone

After scanning, all categories of your device will be listed in the left sidebar. Click the Messages library, and you can find all deleted iMessages in the right panel. You can check the box of messages to be retrieves, or search messages via the top-right search box. Then, click the Recover button in the bottom-right corner.

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Step 3: Choose output directory for recovered text messages

In the pop-up window, you can confirm the output directory to store the deleted iMessage on your computer. Or, you can click the "Open" button to browse and select another directory to save the exported message. After the recovery process is complete, you can find and view the deleted text messages in the folder you just set up.

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Finally, if you want to transfer recovered text messages to your device, use iTransfer to import them.