Like the OP, I’m clueless about this stuff. Can you do the opposite, use your email program to text someone if you have their texting-address?
There are online sites that will allow you to send a text to a number, there’s probably e-mail gateways that do the same. I’m pretty sure people on Orange (UK) can get a email-to-sms address.
You have to watch the sites not run by the telecos themselves, the third party sites have to make their money back somehow which would either be tagging an ad onto the bottom of the text or, much worse, harvesting the phone number you entered to sell one. Advertisers love having peoples mobile phone number.
This is correct. Yes, I misspoke slightly when I implied that all 10,000 were sent, as the number comes from my monthly bill which includes both sent and received. Bear in mind that a large number of these messages are just 1 or 2 words and they do come in bursts.
Also, yes, we are talking about a teenage girl. And, believe it or not, I do set limits, but her grades and behavior are exemplary and long as that continues I will allow unlimited texting within the parameters I’ve set.
Yes, but the exact method will vary by provider. My employer gives me a verizon phone, and we have a server monitor that will email [my10digitnumber]@vtext.com if there is a problem and it sends a text message to my phone. Other providers have different number formats and their own email domains - we have a service that emails text messages to students’ phones in emergencies that figures out the proper format based on your number and who you say your provider is.
They can also retain the message and look at it repeatedly. This is useful if it contains something that needs to be referenced, like a phone number or the spelling of a name or a street address or something. If this information is delivered by voice, the recipient needs to find a pen and scratch paper and then stick that in a pocket and not lose it. If the phone number or whatever is in a text message, you can pull it up and look at it as many times as you need (until you copy it to your address book, of course).
If the person is leaving a voice mail they inevitably reel off the number super-fast and force me to listen to the whole damn message five times to get the digits right.
Apparently I have a lot of telephone annoyances, maybe I should start a pit thread.
Concerning Short Codes, is it still possible to dial, on a land line, the last four digits of a telephone number to dial someone with the same area code and prefix?
I have a terrible cell phone plan for text messages: Each message costs me something like 15 cents. As a result, I never send messages, and I rarely receive them. If I ever get one from someone I know, I tell them not to do it again in no uncertain terms, so that they don’t ever do it again.
I just can’t figure out how I’m supposed to do it, even if I wanted to. How can you you type a message fast enough on that keypad so that it doesn’t totally frustrate you? Just entering people’s names into the telephone book is a big deal for me. I mean, the examples people were giving: “Pick up a burrito on the way home.” I could have a full conversation in the time it would take me to peck out that message. “Let’s see – first I want the ‘p’. How do I get it? Oh yes, ‘7’. Then ‘i’. That’s ‘4’ three times.” Etc.
Ed
I often text when it’s something short and I’m in a noisy environment such as a bus, where talking would be difficult. Plus, the recipient isn’t interrupted as much.
Your phone (and every phone since probably 1998) has predictive text entry, which reduced the keypresses necessary for typing. For me: “Pick up a burrito on the way home.” = “7425 87 2 2877486 66* 843 929 4663**1”. I changed the 0s to spaces for legibility, but otherwise that’s the exact key sequence to enter that sentence. It guessed the right word all but two times, which is when I hit the * to cycle through possibilities.
I’m a fast text typist. Your phrase took me 9 seconds to type, versus 6 seconds on my keyboard.
And as others have pointed out:[ul][li]Texts are asynchronous – I send it when it’s convenient to me, and others respond when it’s convenient to them.[/li][li]Texts are easier to reference multiple times – voicemails have to be listened to in order to get the information, whereas texts are as easily read as a Post-It.[/li][li]Texts are unintrusive to others – they can be sent and received silently.[/li][li]Texts are easily sent to multiple recipients – you can tell 1 or 100 people the same thing in the same amount of time, without having to make several phone calls.[/li][*]Texts are mobile – it’s basically e-mail that goes with you wherever you are.[/ul]
Predictive text input. On some phones I’ve had, it’s been great, but i the phone I have now, it’s not so good (it’s hard to pick the right word when it guesses wrong, and a lot of words I use seem to not be in the dictionary). In that case, just a quick bit of practice and it’s not a big deal for me to press 744422255#887#2#22887777774448666
I use this quite a bit with automated systems; For example, American Airlines emails flight departure information to my cell phone. By the time the plane pulls up to the gate, I know whether my connection’s on time, and what gate it’s leaving from. My voice mail at work emails the Caller ID and time when someone leaves me a voice message, so I don’t have to call in and check voice mail unless I know there’s a message I need to pick up.
And if I know the person I need to talk to’s in a meeting with a client, I can text them to call me when they’re done. In most cases, they can just click on “Call” from within the text, and their phone will pull my number into the dial string.
My phone sure doesn’t, and though it’s an older Nokia model, I’ve only had it for a couple of years.
My phone’s so old… (how old is it?!?) …that when I went to T-mobile to pick up an earpiece for it, they said they don’t sell earpieces for models that old. So maybe it is pre-'98. 
Actually, they would announce “We only have 300 texts so far!”, so the 3000 didn’t happen right away, but took maybe an hour. Which presumably meant that some people text and text over and over again, knowing that those texts won’t win but will bring the total number closer to the target.
I guess with unlimited texting it’s no big deal to do it, but it still struck me as kinda strange…
I’ve done this once or twice, but the problem is that my cel directory doesn’t accept the @ symbol in the memory (or A-Z for that matter; only numbers). If it did, then I could have my wife’s e-mail address programmed into my phone and text her straight to e-mail when I wanted to drop her a line.
But as things are now, if I want to text/e-mail her, I have to manually type in her e-mail address before sending every time. So naturally, I rarely do this because it’s a PITA.
Thanks, everyone, for all the answers, btw. 
You’d be surprised. As we’re constantly on the go at work, texting is considered one of our official means of communication. The majority of my texting is work related, and it saves us quite a bit of time.
I had a 3310 for work with predictive texting onboard, quite a few years ago now.
Texting was the norm as we were mobile and answering the phone while driving was although at the time still legal strongly discouraged by management for safety reasons.
Also, you could receive and respond at a convenient time instead of having to drop what you were doing to receive instruction or information that wasn’t necessarily required right at that instant and was retained and available for reference.
Exactly. When I place a call I always get tied up in chatting when I don’t really have the time. I quick text exchange is so much easier.
I rarely use over an hour of mobile minutes but use over 3000 text per month.
Well, another factor is that we’re not talking about messages like here, or like most emails. A lot of them are “k” or “y” or “:)”.
Just shows you how little experience I have with texting. I never even HEARD of predictive text!
Ed