Beluga: new cross-platform group messaging service

Beluga is a free, cross-platform group messaging service along the lines of GroupMe, Kik, or BlackBerry's BBM. It works with any phone, although iPhone and Android have dedicated Beluga apps. Beluga lets you send messages to customizable groups of friends -- called "pods" -- and users can also share photos and locations. In fact, you can view the locations of your entire pod on a single map.

Beluga distinguishes itself from similar services with its ease of use, the fact it's not tied to one platform (like BBM) or tied to SMS (like GroupMe), and its photo uploads. Co-founder Lucy Zhang told Mashable that Beluga wants to do for SMS what Gmail did for email. Beluga has to hope that its unique features are enough to keep it out of legal hot water, as well. Just recently, Kik was booted from BlackBerry App World and sued by RIM. Of course, Beluga also doesn't have Kik's millions of users yet, either, so it should be able to swim under the radar for now.