Skype works very much like an instant messaging program, but allows users to call people on their buddy list and have a voice conversation instead of a text-based chat.

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It's a tool to fade text in AOL chat, text and e-mails.

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In 2008, the company launched YY, a voice-based gaming communications service, which enabled gamers to voice chat over the Internet and text chat in real-time while slaying monsters or coordinating gaming missions.

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Several agreed that text enhances call-in and chat options for a generation of young people who prefer to communicate by typing on their phones, especially when they don't want parents, teachers, friends or boyfriends to listen in.

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The PS Vita already has voice chat and text chat through its built-in Party application.

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The new feature will simplify how people communicate whether it be via text, instant messages, online chat or e-mail.

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Replacing the familiar iChat, Messages is an instant-messaging program with group-chat capability and a dash of text messaging mixed in.

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The Planned Parenthood Federation of America is in its second year of running one of the largest text and chat outreach operations for people ages 15 to 24, targeting African-American and Latino youth through promotional campaigns on MTV, websites and mobile providers, social media, wallet cards, video and Seventeen magazine.

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Users send an invite by email or text message, and the invitee taps a button to enter a browser chat, which opens a browser-based chat room on their phone.

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