Textra SMS App Threatens To Report Pirates!

DroidModderX

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But its free how could I possibly be stealing? This is they grey area that causes people to do things like go to the piratebay to download the latest episode of the Simpsons or ShowBox to stream the latest episode of The Flash. I mean if I can record it for free on my VCR why is it illegal to download it? The simple fact is that when you download a product you didn't pay for you are skipping out on the ads which actually do pay for the product. In reality the bad outweighs the good.

The same can be said for free software which is pirated. The only reason you would pirate such an app is to get rid of the ads. Textra a free SMS app for Android has started to send out warnings to those who have pirated the app threatening to report them to authorities. The warning states you have 3 days to download the app from the play store or else.

In an interview the creator of Textra admitted that piracy wasn't a big deal to them. The message is more of an encouragement to get folks to download the legitimate app through the Play Store to keep them away from modified versions of the app that are available which could contain malware. While they may not really be going after pirates, the app is FREE so if you stole it you may want to consider supporting the developers and just download the app from the Play Store!

via torrentfreak
 
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dezymond

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That's the first I've heard of it and I'm a bit surprised it's taken this long for devs to go this route.

Apps are fairly cheap, don't see why anyone would pirate them. Support the devs so they can find ways to make it better. I think the most I paid for an app was like $7 or something...well worth the cost.
 

liftedplane

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Their ads are extremely annoying, however the paid version isn't that much. I bought it to get rid of the stupid in app thread adverts.

Thankfully they aren't trying to continually upsell me to some paid monthly/yearly service like handcent did. even after getting rid of features like the homescreen widget.
 

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Their ads are extremely annoying, however the paid version isn't that much. I bought it to get rid of the stupid in app thread adverts.

Thankfully they aren't trying to continually upsell me to some paid monthly/yearly service like handcent did. even after getting rid of features like the homescreen widget.
I stopped using Handcent because of that. It got so bad that it became a pain to use the app. I stopped using Textra because the ads popped up on top right as I was clicking the top text so kept accidentally hitting the ad and opening a browser. I guess it was probably planned that way to get revenue but it annoyed me too much. Been using Go SMS Pro. Not sure if I like it yet or not. I'm a bit picky when it comes to texting apps.
 

Zues532

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Due respect, but the second sentence in your second paragraph is categorically false. To say that the only reason to pirate an app is to get a copy without ads is ridiculous.
 

liftedplane

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I stopped using Handcent because of that. It got so bad that it became a pain to use the app. I stopped using Textra because the ads popped up on top right as I was clicking the top text so kept accidentally hitting the ad and opening a browser. I guess it was probably planned that way to get revenue but it annoyed me too much. Been using Go SMS Pro. Not sure if I like it yet or not. I'm a bit picky when it comes to texting apps.
That's exactly why I got the paid version of textra.... I waited for a sale and got a pretty good deal.

It's really too bad about handcent as I used it exclusively from my first droid {the day I joined this site), until about a year ago.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
 
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Due respect, but the second sentence in your second paragraph is categorically false. To say that the only reason to pirate an app is to get a copy without ads is ridiculous.

Why else would you pirate a FREE app?
 

mountainbikermark

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Market restrictions?
And some are too cheap to pay the .99 to remove the ads. Might keep them from buying 1/5 of their morning coffee for a day.

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xeene

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Yeah to us that's cheap but to some 3rd world person that could be their whole day's income.
 

liftedplane

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CJM

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Mine stopped giving me surveys... What are you doing to get so many.

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Honestly don't know for sure. The friends I suggested this to don't get any or as much as I do. I thought it might because I use Google more than they do. But a quick search found this r/Frugal I do answer they surveys, usually, within a few minutes of receiving them. Sometimes I'll get 2 or 3 a day

Tapped from a Nexus 6
 

liftedplane

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Honestly don't know for sure. The friends I suggested this to don't get any or as much as I do. I thought it might because I use Google more than they do. But a quick search found this r/Frugal I do answer they surveys, usually, within a few minutes of receiving them. Sometimes I'll get 2 or 3 a day

Tapped from a Nexus 6
a few months ago I was getting a ton of them... I thought maybe it was because of my location settings and everywhere I was going as well as using google all the time. Then it just stopped. haven't gotten one in nearly a month.
 

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Yeah to us that's cheap but to some 3rd world person that could be their whole day's income.

When in the 3rd World, it's not just income.

I just returned from spending six weeks in Uganda. If you have never left the US or the more common areas in Europe, you would be amazed how many apps are "unavailable in your area." It didn't matter that it was a U.S. phone, registered in the U.S., and the OS was activated in the U.S.. All that mattered was that, at that precise moment, I was not located in the U.S.

Thankfully, I traded in my Note 4 last year for a Nexus 6P, rooted it, and pesky details like physical location are no bar to downloading apps from the Play Store if you are even marginally competent. For an unrooted phone, your only option is a VPN or "pirating."
 
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