Google

Google's hardly publicized method for sending free text messages has been revoked after traffic from a popular iPhone app became too much.

Google has started to block Infinite SMS and all other third-party software that's been piggybacking the text messaging feature available in Gmail. Enabled in December via the Labs, the possibility of sending free SMS messages right from the Gmail chat window was quickly targeted by the Inner Fence developers who last month released Infinite SMS, a paid ($0.99) app for the iPhone and iPod touch which used the function to let users send as many text messages they want for free (if you don't count the one-time fee of course).

Saying that "SMS chat is still just an experiment in the early testing stages in Gmail Labs", and that it can't support an application that significantly increases its usage, Google has decided to block Infinite SMS, with those who bought it now getting this little error - "SMS_ERROR_10: Sorry we don't support free SMS messaging through this client. Visit http://gmail.com/sms for more info." Looks like a refund is in order.

If the best things in life are free, then Inner Fence's "Infinite SMS" app for the iPhone was really the bee's knees. Though it cost users 99 cents through the iTunes store, it also allowed them to send free, unlimited text messages by piggybacking on a feature Google had enabled for Gmail back in December, rather than through traditional carrier services.

The Innerfence team (just two people) said that users should expect the service to go offline today. "Google has claimed no grievance with Infinite SMS other than its success. Their given reason for the block isn't abuse or wrongdoing; it's that we brought too many users (and thus too much cost) to an experimental service. We acted in good faith, accessing a feature publicly announced by Google over open protocols they made available. Other non-Google apps have been able to access the SMS feature since its launch. To us, this was no different from accessing Gmail's near limitless storage over the open IMAP protocol. We never could have guessed that the two of us would write an app too big for Google."