Apparatus and method to facilitate downloading mobile software applications into a portable electronic device, which software applications include advertisements that are embedded within the software application and are re-transmitted to others through use of the portable electronic device

A computer implemented method, comprising:

• installing an application on a mobile computing device of a first user;
• determining that the first user has instructed the application, installed on the device of the first user, to transmit a first mobile messaging service message to a device of a second user, the first mobile messaging service message including a message entered by the first user into the device of the first user;
• causing, at least in part, the first mobile messaging service message to automatically include content provided by a content provider to the device of the first user with the message entered by the first user;
• (i) wherein the message entered by the first user does not include the content from the content provider;
• and
• (ii) wherein the first mobile messaging service message causes the content from the content provider to be displayed on the device of the second user in a messaging visual frame in association with the message entered by the first user.

A communication system, comprising:

• at least one computing device;
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to perform operations comprising:
• receiving at a computing device of a first user content provided by a content provider;
• detecting that a first user has instructed a computing device associated with the first user to transmit a first mobile messaging service message to a device of a second user, the first mobile messaging service message including a message entered by the first user, the message entered by the user including alphanumeric characters, wherein the message entered by the first user does not include the content from the content provider;
• determining if the computing device of the first user has transmitted a first threshold number of mobile messaging service messages to the device of the second user and if the computing device of the first user has received a second threshold number of mobile messaging service messages from the device of the second user in response to one or more of the mobile messaging service messages transmitted to the device of the second user;
• at least partly in response to determining that the computing device has transmitted the first threshold number of mobile messaging service messages to the device of the second user and has received the second threshold number of mobile messaging service messages from the device of the second user:
• automatically causing the first mobile messaging service message to include the content from the content provider with the message entered by the first user, such that when the first mobile messaging service message is received by the device of the second user, the content from the content provider is displayed in association with the message entered by the first user when displayed on the device of the second user, wherein the content from the content provider is displayed adjacent to, but visually separated from the message entered by the first user.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that when executed by a mobile computing device of a first user, cause the mobile computing device to perform operations comprising:

• determining that the first user has instructed application, installed on the mobile computing device of the first user, to transmit a first mobile messaging service message to a device of a second user, the first mobile messaging service message including a message entered by the first user into the device of the first user;
• causing, at least in part, the first mobile messaging service message to automatically include content provided by a content provider to the device of the first user with the message entered by the first user;
• (i) wherein the message entered by the first user does not include the content from the content provider;
• and
• (ii) wherein the first mobile messaging service message causes the content from the content provider to be displayed on the device of the second user adjacent to, but visually separated from the message entered by the first user.