Desperate text message help; have Internet but minimal cell service. Need answer fast.

Mrs. Devil is in the hospital in dire circumstances. I am two hours away with the Devilling; her folks are an hour away. They are putting a tube down her throat so she won’t be able to talk — text only.

Our house has spotty cell/data signal at best. Text messages often get hung up waiting to send (failing multiple times and so I need to resend) and messages sent to me can arrive a while after someone sent them.

I have a good wifi network here, so have access to the Internet. I do not have any aftermarket messaging apps or social media apps on the phone (no Facebook, Twitter, etc.). I have a basic Google account (needed to set up the phone, subscribe to YouTube channels, etc.), but I’ve only accessed it on my desktop. I don’t know what Google Voice or Hangouts is, but assume they’re available. I can install apps on my phone if it’ll help (paid or free).

Her phone has talk and text but no data plan (so multimedia texts can’t get through, so she can’t do group messaging (when I put multiple recipients into my phone it automatically converts it into a multimedia message).

I think she can technically connect to the Internet on her phone via wifi, but she’s never done that before and now is not the time to tell her to figure it out. She is not in a position to install any new apps. She too has no aftermarket Facebook or other social media apps. She does not even have a Facebook account.

Please bear with me; we rarely use our cell phones so are clueless as to text messaging and other modern features.

Is there a way I can get send/receive text messages over the Internet instead of Cell towers? I believe I can send an email to her phone number@tmomail.net. Would her replies be sent to my inbox? Any easier way to make it portable (It’s absurdly cumbersome to connect to email on my phone).

Thanks.

Which cell service do you have? Some providers have a ‘micro cell’ device which is like a mini cell tower that connects to your router. Your phone doesn’t know the difference, but everything flows over the internet. We got one free from ATT because service at our house was terrible and we were about to cancel.

Google Voice does allow you to send text over the internet. You have to install the app on your phone and the phone has to have internet access–either through cell or wifi. You also have to have a Google Voice phone number. Once it’s setup, then you use the Google Voice app for texting. People can text to your GV number and it will go to the GV app.

MySMS lets you send and receive texts from your web browser. It’s a browser extension for Chrome and you can set it up so if she texts your cell phone number, it will show up on your computer. The only drawback is that you’ll need to keep your computer on (and not let it sleep).

Here’s a link. See if that’s workable for you.

I have installed, and used for the past three years, the TextFree Voice wifi app on my Android tablet. It assigns you a free telephone number, and sending and receiving texts are also free. (Voice calls cost 10 cents a minute.)

Thanks. We’re on T-mobile with two different prepaid plans. Mine is $3 for a day of text/talk/data. Super expensive if I were to connect every day, but since I normally only use it a few times a month, my cell bill can be under a hundred per year.

She’s on a prepaid plan too, but her’s has unlimited talk and text throughout the month (but no data). I’m on T-Mobile right now and am going to change her to a $50 unlimited talk/text with 10GB of data (not that she’ll use a lot, but at least we’ll get over the multimedia message problem).

Going to set up a Google Voice phone number and put the app on my phone. As I understand you, she and others will be able to text to that GV number and as long as I have the app installed and a WiFi connection, I’ll have no problems sending/receiving texts (even picture texts?).

Can that work on the Chrome browser for Android? Last I tried (years ago) the Android browser didn’t have add-ons.

You don’t need to have the GV app. Only she needs it on her phone. Everyone else can treat her GV phone number as a normal cell number and text and MMS as usual. But the advantage of you using the GV app is that it sends texts/MMS over your internet connection, which may be cheaper if your phone is connected to wifi.

Here’s T-Mobile’s personal cell station: Important T-Mobile Network Update | T-Mobile Support. Availability depends on your service level:

Try GoogleVoice - has both web and app support with free texting and calls.

Another option is to switch providers. If T-Mobile is bad at your house, another provider may be excellent. The various pre-paid phones you see at the store piggyback on other providers. If you can find out which provider has better coverage at your house, you can get a phone which will work more reliably without going through these hoops.

Doesn’t T Mobiles WiFi calling work with texts, too? I have T Mobile and I know it works with WiFi calls, and it seems it should work with text, too. It’s a setting. For me, on iPhone, it’s under Settibgs>Cellular>WiFi Calling>On.

I have WiFi calling on, but texts act funny nonetheless.

I changed her to a data plan, so that should take care of her multimedia issue. I don’t know if her phone has data turned off in settings right now. She’s out of commission for a while so I can’t have her check; will hopefully get to visit soon and can experiment with both phones then.

No idea on the tech question, but big internet Hug. Hope it works out for you and Mrs Devil!

You can send a text message by email. If you’re sending to a T-Mobile phone, compose an email like this:

TO: [phone number]@tmomail.net

then the text you want to send. It will be received as a text message. Not sure if any response will go to your email address (the email address from which the message was sent). Try it with someone other than your wife, it might work.

I do have an answer for you, since you’re on T-Mobile and I used to work there. You can use your email address to send a text message to anyone on T-Mo by using as the email address [phone number with no dashes or spaces]@tmomail.net and that will send it as an SMS to her phone.

ETA: teach me not to read the whole thread!

When I read the heading “Desperate text message help; have Internet but minimal cell service. Need answer fast.” I assumed it was about a common scam where you get a call from someone you might know, desperately needing cash.

Not the browser (I thought you were using a PC), but there are apps in the Google Play store for Android.

If you both have stable~ish internet but spotty cell coverage then Whatsapp might work for you. Would need to set that up on both ends. Free messages, either text only or you could send voice clips, if sent over WiFi/internet. Would use data if send over cell.

There is a web version of Whatsapp which would let you text from your computer if that is more convenient than using your cell and that would definitely go out over internet. For the web interface to work your phone must also stay connected, either via WiFi or I suppose cell. Setting up web interface required a one time procedure of taking a photo of one of those weird barcodes to link my cell to this laptop.

Whatsapp works for me and I really have no idea how but it added contacts from my email /cell address book.

I agree that Whatsapp is a very good solution. It’s easy to install and works just like regular texting.

Skype can send SMS text messages from the Skype phone or desktop app over the internet to a regular phone (without data or internet). You will need a paid account, but it is cheap.

T-Mobile will give you a free signal booster ($25 deposit required) on request. I ordered one for my in-laws and it works brilliantly. However, I’m not sure that you can just pick them up at retail outlets; I think they have to be delivered.