Free Alternative to SMS

Hi,

I just picked up the Motorola Droid, and I'm loving it I'm trying to find the best free alternative to SMS (because it's ridiculous that after paying $30/mo for 3G access, I have to pay more to move 100-character messages around on the same network...). Ideal would be something like BlackBerry Messenger.

So far, I've been using gTalk with my status set to invisible, and that seems to be a pretty good alternative. When I initiate a gTalk conversation with an invisible status, the conversation usually remains short - like an SMS conversation. One downside is that people never initiate conversations on gTalk with me while I'm set to invisible.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a better alternative?

 

Thanks for the suggestions! mplevy, I'm trying out Google Voice, and it seems like SMS and outgoing calls use distinct numbers, both different form the one listed as my Google Voice number! Have you experienced this? Anybody know what's going on? I would expect those three numbers to be the same.

IOWA, I totally agree, but Verizon is the only solid carrier, and as such, they get to charge stupid people for useless services

 

IOWA, I think you misread the article. It seems to claim good results for Sprint in West Coast cities. I take this to mean it did not perform as well in East Coast cities, as Verizon got an overall better result. Also, one of the reasons I say Verizon is the only solid network is because it's the only network that works outside of big cities... which this article did not address.

 

It looks like I was freaking out for no reason, mplevy. The different numbers I was seeing were just access numbers. The call or SMS recipient sees my GV number just fine

So, yes, GV is the only correct response to my OP. I'm only scared that Google is the only software company that can do anything right Monopolies are dangerous.