texting

[Cjenny2]

My husband and I both have a Public Mobility account. Can we text to each other in the US without US roaming?

[Jaznlanc]

I often buy or rent a sim in my destination country

[DennyCrane]

@Jaznlanc The idea of Signal is good, but none of my contacts were on it, so it was of no use to me. WhatsApp is widely used and is encrypted. Only downside is Meta gets access to all your contacts.

[Jaznlanc]

Never WhatsApp... better to use Signal or Threema

[DennyCrane]

@Cjenny2 Short answer is no.

Longer answer is you can receive texts for free, but to send you need a roaming add-on or a Can/US plan. By chance do you both use iPhones/iMessage? Or do you both use android phones with RCS texting capability? If so you could text over wifi that way. Same goes for third party apps such as WhatsApp. And if you want data on the run, I'd suggest a travel esim from providers such as Ubigi or Airalo. Daily plans are available for cheap, and would allow you to use iMessage, RCS, WhatsApp etc.

[Yummy]

Yes, if both of you purchase US add-on.

[BKNS27]

@Cjenny2 

You can only text but you can’t reply. You will need a Canada/USA plan or a U.S. Roaming bundle for you to reply back and forth.

Your other option is to use WhatsApp or TextNow app when you are connected to wifi.

[hTideGnow]

HI @Cjenny2 

sorry, you cannot, you have to have US roaming service to text each other in US

if you get Wifi around, you can of course use Whatsapp or those app to message each other for free with Wifi

[JRod]

@Cjenny2 

If you both are in the US when sending the texts you will both need a talk and text roaming add-on or a Can-US plan. The international texting included for most plans is only for texts sent and received while you are in Canada.

If you have iMessage or another messaging app like WhatsApp, you can message through that while on WiFi.