Jaxtr, an Internet Telephony startup which was acquired by Sabeer Bhatia's SabSe Technologies in June 2009, has been relaunched as JaxtrSMS, a mobile app which allows users to send national and international text messages for free. JaxtrSMS allows users to send SMS's to their friends and family irrespective of whether they have the app installed or not, although they would need to install the app to reply to it free of charge through the service. The app is currently in beta and is available across all major platforms including iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Java with a Windows Phone version expected to arrive soon. The company intends to make money by selling value added services like sending videos, having an online archive of sent pictures and so on, keeping the SMS service free of cost, as noted by The Wall Street Journal. JaxtrSMS App The app is pretty basic right now with a generic user interface (We tried the app on an HTC Desire Z running on Android 2.3.5 and on an iPhone 4). Functionality-wise, the app works just like any other group messaging app such as Whatsapp or Viber. The user is prompted to register details like the first and last name, country and phone number, the first time he fires up the app. After verifying one's mobile number by visiting a link sent via SMS, the user can send messages to phonebook contacts or any specific phone number. The user can view all the messages sent or received and delete any message thread by long tapping on…
