SHIT IT'S NOT SO FREE ANYMORE WHY GOD WHY

So which network is conning us into it?

All of them - Globe, Smart, Sun. It's pretty cool, integrates right into the Gmail chat interface.

But you only get 50 texts for free right now. In order to get more credits, people have to reply to your texts (Google gets money that way).

For every reply you get, that's 5 more texts. If you reach 0 credits, you get 1 more at the end of 24 hours.

Oh well. Still better than nothing. And it's good for emergencies.

Definitely. And depending on how much it costs to send replies to your Google number, it might also be cheaper. Remember, 1 reply = +5 texts