Fast Text

FastText 2.1 is out!

Apple has just approved version 2.1 for the App Store! It should be available in the next few hours.

Changes:

• Removed “Sent by Fast Text” message from e-mails.
• Supports all orientations in create/edit message view.
• Tweaked the “message sent” animation
• General code improvements and cleanup. (Nerds: more prolific use of blocks)

Anonymous asked: I'm really interested in your app but concerned about the lack of reviews. I also detest iApps. Do you have any in the app?

If you mean iAds, no, there are no advertisements within Fast Text. Furthermore, in a pending release, the “Sent by Fast Text” message is removed from e-mails sent using Fast Text.

Anonymous asked: I am considering purchasing Fast Text, but I have one question first. How does fast text send it's messages? Does it send through my phones SMS or does it send through one of those email to SMS conversion services? I don't see this spelled put in the description anywhere, but I might have missed it.

Great question! Fast Text works by asking the iPhone to send messages using either SMS or e-mail, depending on what kind of address (phone number or e-mail) you’re sending to.

2.0 Submitted!

Fast Text version 2.0 was just submitted! The major updates:

• E-mail is now a “first class” message type. When adding favorite recipients, you may now select e-mail addresses as well as phone numbers.
• Since e-mail is first class, and the app is now useful on non-phones, iPod Touches and iPads are now supported.¹

Assuming no issues with the review process, the update should hopefully be available early in the new year. If there are problems during review, I’ll note them here.

The full list of changes is below:

• E-mail is now a first-class message type; favorite recipients can be mated to e-mails as well as phone numbers.
• Thanks to increased e-mail support, iPod Touch and iPad devices are now supported.
• Significant VoiceOver (accessibility) improvements
• Thumbnail images are now improved, especially for contact images that weren’t originally square.
• Message entry now says “SMS Characters Left” since e-mails are now fully supported.
• Added version number to main screen.
• Fix bug that allowed empty messages to be created which in turn caused other errors.
• Fix a bug caused by iOS 4.2 changes that caused the enter phone number dialog box to be rendered incorrectly.
• Improved behavior of Edit/Done buttons.
• Removed bogus top bar from default app image.

Fast Text 1.2 Released

Fast Text 1.2 has been released! In this version, favorite recipients that have only one name, no name, or only a company name are considered valid.

…and will not cause a crash.

Go update now! And get excited for version 2.0, which is already on the horizon…

1.1 Released!

Fast Text 1.1 has been released. It has the following updates:

• NEW! Can now send e-mails from within Fast Text. As an alternative to sending SMSes, you may also send normal e-mails.
• iPhone 4 Retina Display updates
• Tweaks to the Select Recipients screen
• Enlarged and tweaked the Message Sent popup for easier reading

Go download it now!

1.1 Submitted!

Fast Text 1.1 was just submitted! It has one brand new feature, to be revealed when it is released. However, of more interest to those of you I’m totally jealous of, Fast Text now properly supports iPhone 4’s Retina Display. There was also some small cleanup to the Favorite Recipients screen.

Fast Text 1.1 probably won’t be available until Saturday, July 10, at the earliest.

Fast Text 1.1

I’m already hard at work on Fast Text 1.1. I’m currently beta testing this version, and hope to submit it to Apple by the end of the long weekend. This version has some general interface cleanup, better iPhone 4 retina display support, and more!

Release Day!

I am happy to announce that Fast Text is now available in the iTunes App Store! Fast Text Free will be following very soon, if you’d prefer to try before you buy.

Please check it out!

Also, no rest for the weary—I’m already working on enhancements for version 1.1…