Community Forum
Hi All -
First off, let me say that I'm sorry to see this feature go away as well. Although I wasn't a heavy user of the feature myself, it definitely did come in handy at times! I remember using it when I went out of the country... as long as I was connected to WiFi, I could still text message all I wanted. 🙂
Xfinity Text Messaging was released at a time that unlimited text messaging was not as popular as it is now with most cell phone plans. Since its release, we've seen usage drop dramatically as people moved to cell phone text messaging and other options like Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, and numerous other platforms.
The service that Xfinity Text Messaging uses is no longer going to be supported by our vendor and there was no similar service which we could integrate with our platform. We we had to make the decision around developing a completely new solution or simply retiring the service. Because of the relatively low utilization of the service (a fraction of a percent of our customer base), we had to make the tough decision to retire it.
I do hope that those who still need a similar service are able to transition to something else that works well for them - while I can't recommend any specifically, other users in this thread have mentioned options that might work well.
Again, our sincere apologies to those who will miss the feature. It was definitely a unique option to have with a landline phone service! 
I am an Official Comcast Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Comcast: CARE, Product, Leadership. We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Mark the post as Best Answer!
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Comcast: CARE, Product, Leadership. We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Mark the post as Best Answer!
@ComcastBecker wrote:
Hi All -
First off, let me say that I'm sorry to see this feature go away as well. Although I wasn't a heavy user of the feature myself, it definitely did come in handy at times! I remember using it when I went out of the country... as long as I was connected to WiFi, I could still text message all I wanted. 🙂
Xfinity Text Messaging was released at a time that unlimited text messaging was not as popular as it is now with most cell phone plans. Since its release, we've seen usage drop dramatically as people moved to cell phone text messaging and other options like Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, and numerous other platforms.
The service that Xfinity Text Messaging uses is no longer going to be supported by our vendor and there was no similar service which we could integrate with our platform. We we had to make the decision around developing a completely new solution or simply retiring the service. Because of the relatively low utilization of the service (a fraction of a percent of our customer base), we had to make the tough decision to retire it.
I do hope that those who still need a similar service are able to transition to something else that works well for them - while I can't recommend any specifically, other users in this thread have mentioned options that might work well.
Again, our sincere apologies to those who will miss the feature. It was definitely a unique option to have with a landline phone service!
I find it really hard to believe that a Multi-Billion dollar mass communications congolmerate like NBC Universal/Xfinity (with all the resources at it's disposal) cannot locate a vendor to support the existing platform. In fact, there was a time for many months that the existing platform had issues which rendered the service unusable on PC for many customers. The "vendor" should've been replaced long ago.
I understand - I've been with Comcast for quite a while, and I have seen us continue to innovate and offer some really cool services - some of which have gone away over the years.
An examle of one such service was HomePoint - a home phone that allowed you to check email, assign virtual numbers and more. After awhile though, it didn't make sense to pour money (hundreds of thousands of development dollars) into a product that so few used as time marched on. Another example is our Personal Webpage service, which saw very low utilization after the launch of Facebook and other Social Media sites.
Xfinity Text Messaging is an example of one of those products I love, but understand why we are going to retire. As time went on, it lost relevance with most (but of course certainly not all) of our customers.
We want to continue to innovate and develop features that will positively impact the most customers possible. Although we are indeed a very large company, all businesses have to make decisions such as this.
I hope one of the alternative services mentioned in this thread are a viable alternative to meeting your needs!
An examle of one such service was HomePoint - a home phone that allowed you to check email, assign virtual numbers and more. After awhile though, it didn't make sense to pour money (hundreds of thousands of development dollars) into a product that so few used as time marched on. Another example is our Personal Webpage service, which saw very low utilization after the launch of Facebook and other Social Media sites.
Xfinity Text Messaging is an example of one of those products I love, but understand why we are going to retire. As time went on, it lost relevance with most (but of course certainly not all) of our customers.
We want to continue to innovate and develop features that will positively impact the most customers possible. Although we are indeed a very large company, all businesses have to make decisions such as this.
I hope one of the alternative services mentioned in this thread are a viable alternative to meeting your needs!
I am an Official Comcast Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Comcast: CARE, Product, Leadership. We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Mark the post as Best Answer!
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Comcast: CARE, Product, Leadership. We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Mark the post as Best Answer!
@ComcastBecker wrote:
Hi All -
First off, let me say that I'm sorry to see this feature go away as well. Although I wasn't a heavy user of the feature myself, it definitely did come in handy at times! I remember using it when I went out of the country... as long as I was connected to WiFi, I could still text message all I wanted. 🙂
Xfinity Text Messaging was released at a time that unlimited text messaging was not as popular as it is now with most cell phone plans. Since its release, we've seen usage drop dramatically as people moved to cell phone text messaging and other options like Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, and numerous other platforms.
The service that Xfinity Text Messaging uses is no longer going to be supported by our vendor and there was no similar service which we could integrate with our platform. We we had to make the decision around developing a completely new solution or simply retiring the service. Because of the relatively low utilization of the service (a fraction of a percent of our customer base), we had to make the tough decision to retire it.
I do hope that those who still need a similar service are able to transition to something else that works well for them - while I can't recommend any specifically, other users in this thread have mentioned options that might work well.
Again, our sincere apologies to those who will miss the feature. It was definitely a unique option to have with a landline phone service!
Does Comcast realize this is going to result in many many customers quitting the phone service? Why pay for a truncated service? Apologies don't help those in need. Comcast is one of the biggest corporations in world and can certainly afford to keep this feature going
