Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Make money chatting to friends
Teresa Etheredge
7th Nov 2017
Do you like chatting to friends on messaging apps? You probably text or send them pictures. You might spend half your day on them! Wouldn’t it be good if you could make money chatting?
Well, did you know that there are messaging apps with a difference? Ones that actually pay you to use them?
Here’s how you can make money from them.
- What are messaging apps that pay you?
- Which apps should you use?
- Make money with GetChat
- Make money with IMGR
- Make money with Drizzle SMS
What are messaging apps that pay you?
Being paid to do what you do anyway every day is the definition of awesomeness!
The way you can get paid to chat to friends is to use different apps – ones that pay you as you chat.
These WhatsApp-style messengers display ads (like a lot of other sites), and the companies trying to promote their products pay the app to display them.
The app then gives the user a cut of the cash, and everyone’s happy!
So it’s true, you actually do get to make money chatting to friends!
are these ads annoying?
The ads might be shown in several different ways, including:
- A video that might pop up to play
- A banner might sit at the top of the screen
- Ads could be sent to your contacts, attached to the ends of the messages you have sent
Depending on the type of person you are, some of these might annoy the *beep* out of you, while other versions would be barely noticeable.
To help you out, we’ve included some recommendations.
Which apps should you use?
Three of our favourite apps to use are GetChat, IMGR and Drizzle SMS.
GetChat
GetChat is a recently released messenger app for Android phones that rewards you for watching the occasional advert.
You also get free texts when talking with other GetChat users, and can call anyone you like for free, when connected to WiFi or mobile data.
Viewing ads and talking to your friends will earn you credits that can be exchanged for loads of cool rewards.
the rewards you can get from getchat
There’s a mix of rewards from GetChat including:
- Cold hard cash into your PayPal account
- Mobile phone credit with T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone
- Public transport tickets with MHD and Kiwi
- PlayStation Game credit
- Fashion vouchers (such as H&M)
- And more are on the way.
If that doesn’t sound amazing, we don’t know what would.
Download GetChat to your smartphone here.
IMGR
This one works slightly differently, by automatically inserting cute branded emoji’s into the messages you send when using the app.
There are plenty of options that allow you to control your interaction with this app. For example, you can select:
- Which brands to promote
- Which messages you include the emoji’s in
- Which contacts to invite to IMGR
The way it works is you get one point for every branded message you send, and another point for every branded message you receive (so you need to be talking with people who have also downloaded IMGR).
- Users will need to earn at least 300 points before they can qualify for an award, which you will get by sending 150 branded texts and receiving the same number from an IMGR user.
- However, this must be within that particular month.
- The points do not carry over into the next month, so you must start collecting again from zero once the 1st has passed you by.
300 and above might seem like a lot, but not to worry – the average person sends over 2000 texts every month! This is proof that chatterboxes are the best.
Something to remember is that you need to talk to different IMGR users within the month, which will allow you to maximise your income.
what you get for your points
- Each point is worth roughly around 0.75p or $0.01.
- Users can earn up to $30 a month, which increases to around $50 or £40 when they become a Premium User.
- You get to upgrade to Premium once you’ve earned at least 2000 points for 6 consecutive months.
- Your rewards will be sent to you automatically after the end of each month, for which you have four options, all for the same value:
- PayPal cash
- iTunes Gift Card
- Google Play Gift Card
- Or for the wonderful people among us, donate your earnings to charity.
You will select your preferences when you register. Registering is important to remember, as otherwise you can’t get your rewards.
Also, because IMGR is exciting, they randomly give out bonus points!
Of course, those who use the app more often are more likely to win.
Download here, register here, and then start to make money chatting to friends!
Drizzle SMS
The idea behind Drizzle SMS is that users earn money for doing what they usually do anyway, through the inclusion of a few ads.
Drizzle places a non-intrusive advertising banner at the top of the screen whenever you open the app, which will earn you ‘drops’.
There is no need to open or click on the ads to get paid.
You also earn drops just through normal phone usage, which increases when you are sending or receiving messages.
what you can make from drizzle
Drops can be exchanged for more tangible currency through:
- PayPal
- Square Cash
- Gift cards to major retailers e.g. Amazon
- Donating to charity
Around 1000 drops are needed to make $1, which you can convert using your chosen method through the Drizzle Rewards app. Withdrawals are possible once you hit 5000 drops (or $5).
The money will be drizzling rather than pouring in, but a few extra coins in your pocket will at the very least help your phone habit to pay for itself.
And just to sweeten an already astonishing deal – this app includes a full emoji keyboard.
Add Drizzle SMS to your Android phone here and make money chatting to friends.
A great way to make some money using messaging apps.