I’m sure I’ve seen this somewhere on the web before, but are there any sites that allow you to send text messages to a cellphone? Have you used any and are they any good?
Most service providers offer a place to send texts to their customers’ mobile phones from the web. Also, if you have AIM, it’s easy to send texts to Cingular, AT&T, and Verizon customers (and possibly more that I’m not aware of), just send the message to +1(area code)(number) and you’re set.
Most carriers I know provide some mechanism for you to send a text message by sending email from your computer to an alias address (related to your phone number). As far as I know, it varies from carrier to carrier. If you post your service provider, I can try to see if I can find something for your case.
It doesn’t matter what service you use, only what service the person you are trying to send a message to uses.
ATTwireless has merged with Cingular, so I think both services use Cingular’s website (top right corner <send a message>) and I’m sure you can find them within Verizon and Sprint if you look.
With T-Mobile, all anyone has to do is send an e-mail to the e-mail addy of the phone like you describe above. Presumably everyone has the ability to send an e-mail if they have a computer online. Unlike AIM, which many don’t have on their box.
I don’t have any guarantees that the information is correct or up-to-date, but this website seems to list the many different US carriers and the email addresses to use when messaging a phone. So as an example, according to ths site, if you send mail to:
10digitnumber @mobile.att.net
replacing ‘10digitnumber’ with the phone number of the phone you want to message, the text will be sent as a text message to that phone. They also have details for Cingular, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, etc. I don’t know how the system has changed (if at all) since the ATT/Cingular merger, so this info may be completely inaccurate. But, it shows the idea. Current info for each specific provider can probably be found from the carrier’s website, etc.
FWIW the address is <10digitnumber>@tmomail.net The legacy domain @voicestream.net (they merged a few years ago) still works as well.
Does anyone know the domain for Sprint? I have one issued from work but I’ll be damned if I can figure out simple email messaging.
From the link above, it says the Sprint address would be: <10digitnumber>@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Presumably with all carriers a quick call to customer service will get the latest information. Note that with some carriers the e-mail option is not available by default, and in some cases the customer must pay extra to enable it. I notice that on the T-Mobile website it appears all plans now allow incoming e-mail messages at no extra charge. And according to that link of yours above all services have a max length allowed for the message; and the longest of all the providers is just 200 characters. Thus, you had better warn people who may e-mail your cellphone to keep it very brief.
For Verizon you email 9991234567@vtext.com
But I can’t get your AIM method to work at all either including or excluding the ('s, and including or excluding a dash in the number.
Just precede the ten-digit number with +1. e.g. +12125551234. If it works you’ll get an auto-response from the AIM server confirming that it’s delivering your message.
That was my point it doesn’t work. I’m told I have an invalid character in the name. I assume the + sign