How TextNow Became the First $0 Phone Plan

TextNow, the only free phone service provider with unlimited talk & text, plus essential data, always had grand goals. When our CEO and co-founder, Derek Ting, first built the TextNow app in 2009, it was in response to the exorbitantly high rates for text messages at the time. When texting first came about, it was charged per text or per a set amount, making it easy to spend too much or not be able to communicate enough. As a college student, he didn’t have the means to pay for them.

What he didn’t expect, though, was for the app he built to gain so much traction so quickly. He realized that expensive phone service was a universal problem, and he set out on a bigger mission – to make phone service free.  

What is TextNow?  

Over the last 17 years, the little app that was built in a college apartment now has grown to more than 200 employees and offices in Canada and San Francisco. What started as a free texting app now also has free international texting to select countries, free calling, free international calling to select countries, and free data for essential apps.

What is Free Flex Plan?  

TextNow’s Free Flex Plan is a data plan that allows you to access your TextNow app for unlimited calls & texts, as well as your essential apps, like email, finance, maps, rideshare (Uber & Lyft) for $0/month, over a 5G network, nationwide.  

How do you get free data?  

Unlike many traditional carriers, there are no qualifications, no credit checks, no temporary promotions, no wait lists – anyone can get free phone service, anytime, for as long as they want. All you need is a TextNow SIM card (to connect you to the network, so you can use your apps without Wi-Fi) and a compatible phone.  

Once your SIM card is active, you can start using your essential apps (including TextNow!) whenever you’re without Wi-Fi, for as long as you want, without ever incurring a monthly bill – it’s essentially a $0 phone plan.   

What’s the catch with TextNow?  

You might be thinking that there is no such thing as free, that if it sounds too good to be true, it is. Those are usually the right assumptions, but not in the case of TextNow. We truly believe in the mission to make phone service more accessible and more affordable, and the way we’re able to make that happen is through brand partnerships. We realized that if TV and music could evolve and become more accessible through an ad-supported model, then so could phone service. After all, that is more of a living standard need, so why shouldn’t it be as, if not more, accessible than your entertainment? 

So how can we afford to give away this service for free? Some services, like Helium Mobile, do it with mandatory location sharing (and even so Helium now passes on taxes and fees to you). But we stuck to what other leading services like YouTube and Spotify already do – ads. But we wanted to help people even more and so we kicked off TextNow Perks – a one-stop shop inside the app that lets brands reach out directly with discounts, promotions, or even free offers. Offers updatefrequently so there is always something for someone, without any limits on how many offers you can redeem. 

We’ve come a long way in 17 years, and still have a lot that we’re so excited to bring to you, so follow along here for more updates or check us out on our socials: TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat.

If you have any questions or comments, send us a note at [email protected]!