# Is there a way to text from Canada to US for free without a cell phone? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 2, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-text-from-canada-to-us-for-free-without-a-cell-phone/667773 "2013-09-02T00:04:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pauly1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a8b319/32.png) [@pauly1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pauly1)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-text-from-canada-to-us-for-free-without-a-cell-phone/667773/1 "2013-09-02T00:04:11Z")
Is there a way to text in canada to a us cell phone where there won’t be any costs incurred for both me and the other person in the us? I assume there is a program online where you can download to send a text to a us cell phone for free but if there is, then the receiver of the text still has to pay for it? Note i want to send a message from my computer to a us cell phone. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-text-from-canada-to-us-for-free-without-a-cell-phone/667773/2 "2013-09-02T00:09:17Z")
AOL instant messenger (and its clones, like Trillian) can send SMS messages from your computer. I do it all the time. I don’t know if it works outside of the USA though. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-text-from-canada-to-us-for-free-without-a-cell-phone/667773/3 "2013-09-02T00:12:01Z")
You can send an email to a cell phone number that will be delivered as an SMS text message. Problem is, you need to know their cell phone provider. [This link](http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/email-to-sms/) appears to have a big list of carriers. ETA: though I now see it’s very old. Try Googling “email text” or “email sms” ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-text-from-canada-to-us-for-free-without-a-cell-phone/667773/4 "2013-09-02T00:44:19Z")
On the Canadian carrier Fido, you can still send a text message to a subscriber by sending an email message to \@fido.ca. (The phone number is without the preceding 1, or any punctuation or spaces; just a string of 10 digits starting with the area code.) I just tested this and it still works. If you know the carrier your friend uses, there should be a similar service for reaching its subscribers. ETA: the recipient may still pay for the text, depending on plan. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-text-from-canada-to-us-for-free-without-a-cell-phone/667773/5 "2013-09-02T15:15:45Z")
How about a reply? Can it be routed to come to your computer? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-text-from-canada-to-us-for-free-without-a-cell-phone/667773/6 "2013-09-02T15:21:02Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > How about a reply? Can it be routed to come to your computer? Well you can text to email. So the sender sends from [user@gmail.com](mailto:user@gmail.com) to [123456789@vtext.com](mailto:123456789@vtext.com) and the person gets the text on their phone, and they reply and the reply goes to [user@gmail.com](mailto:user@gmail.com). ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-text-from-canada-to-us-for-free-without-a-cell-phone/667773/7 "2013-09-02T15:26:24Z")
Just tested and confirmed. ---
**Author:** ![tgu2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2acd7d/32.png) [@tgu2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tgu2)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-text-from-canada-to-us-for-free-without-a-cell-phone/667773/8 "2013-09-02T20:09:15Z")
The other suggestions are good, but if you want a real phone number, you could use Textfree. The parent company of Textfree, Pinger, has a desktop web version on their website and you could also download the iPhone or Android app. It’ll set you up with a US-based phone number, but you’ll get a real phone number, if that’s important to you.