What is "pinger"

n. 1 A device that emits a short, high-pitched sound bust (i.e. goes, "ping!") such as in sonar or other echo locate systems. 2 A device that periodically emits a signal that can be monitored to permit movement tracking. 3 A computer program that sends a ping message over a network. 4 A user of a ping program; one who pings.

n. a pulse generator used for echo sounding in sonar

Pinger may refer to:

• Ping'er, fictional character in Dream of the Red Chamber
• Underwater locator beacon
• Pinger, texting and calling smartphone application
• PingER Project, an internet performance reporting tool
• Australian slang for the drug ecstasy.

Pinger is a leading US Telecom provider for free texts, pics, calls, voicemails. Ad-supported Pinger was founded in 2005 by former Palm, Inc. managers Greg Woock ( CEO) and Joe Sipher. Pinger is funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, DAG Ventures, Deutsche Telekom, and T-ventures and has raised US$18.5M. The Pinger software runs on iOS, Android, Windows and Macintosh devices.

Competitors are GOGII, Optini and WhatsApp.

Pinger, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in San Jose, California. Pinger's application, Textfree, is a proprietary, cross-platform texting and calling application for smartphones. Users can communicate with others who do not use Textfree via texting and calling. Users can call within US and Canada, while texting is free in 35 countries. New accounts receive a new phone number and 10 free minutes. Users may also communicate with any other user worldwide. Moreover, Pinger has a web based version of its application that allows users to send and receive text messages directly from computer. They provide a permanent number to their users, which they can use to send free texts for lifetime.