# Texting Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 19, 2016, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texting-question/760283 "2016-07-19T04:20:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texting-question/760283/1 "2016-07-19T04:20:11Z")
I normally don’t text. I’ve received a few but that was years ago. Can you reply to a text just like email? Or does the sender need to include his phone number? I got talked into texting someone and haven’t heard back. I wondered if I screwed up. It’s in my outbox marked as sent. It’s on my 12 year old flip phone but that shouldn’t matter? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texting-question/760283/2 "2016-07-19T04:30:44Z")
You can just text them back with a reply. But text messages, like emails, don’t guarantee transfers. Usually they’ll work fine but sometimes they’ll get it days or weeks later if something happened with the network. You can just try sending it again or call them. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texting-question/760283/3 "2016-07-19T04:33:20Z")
Excellent username/post. Thanks Reply. I thought you just replied to Texts (without knowing the phone #) but couldn’t remember for sure. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texting-question/760283/4 "2016-07-19T13:48:17Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Excellent username/post. Thanks Reply. > > I thought you just replied to Texts (without knowing the phone #) but couldn’t remember for sure. That’s generally the capability of the text messaging program, which seems to universally offer a “reply” capability, which is (at the bottom of it all) sending a text message to a phone number already known by the phone, because it’s the number the original text message came from. ---
**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texting-question/760283/5 "2016-07-19T14:54:01Z")
If you want to reply to a text message, then by definition you have their phone number. 🙂 When someone texts you, one of the bits of data that the network passes to your handset is the “from” phone number of the sender. So you can always reply to the sender, even if you don’t know who it actually is. If it’s a number that is stored in your contacts list, then the appropriate name will be displayed rather than the number - but the phone still knows the correct number to respond to. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texting-question/760283/6 "2016-07-19T16:27:55Z")
She’s just not that into you. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texting-question/760283/7 "2016-07-19T16:37:28Z")
This is about the extent of my texting. [http://s564.photobucket.com/user/Trygolyte/media/wppic160614.gif.html?o=0](http://s564.photobucket.com/user/Trygolyte/media/wppic160614.gif.html?o=0)