Is there a way I can text message any one or more of my friends' cell phones from my computer?
I’d like to be able to do this for free, without knowing each person’s cell phone provider, without requiring my friends to join anything, without requiring me to have a phone on each friend’s network (though I have Verizon), without advertising, and preferably more than one addressee at a time. This is not for spam purposes. If I have to submit a CAPTCHA each time, I can live with that. It would be nice to be able to do both SMS and MMS messaging. I only need to do this within the United States.
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I’m pretty sure I’ve sent my friends cellphone text messages through AOL instant messenger before by just typing in their phone number. They didn’t join anything. I don’t know what SMS and MMS are. I’m so behind on the cellphone technology.
Are you willing go pay for any text charges your friends might incur?
I personally do not want to receive any text messages unless it is a dire emergency from a family member. A text message interrupts my day and forces me to pay $0.20 for something I do not want.
Occasionally I get one unsolicited and immediately call Verizon 611 to have the number blocked and the $0.20 refunded.
Seriously, check with your friends first and make sure it is ok. It might be free for you but cost them. (What’s wrong with this picture?)
@dverhey I’ll attest that you are not an accessory to the crime – even though you are. ;-)
Most of the people I text anyway have unlimited texts… Teenagers.
If you really want to text them for free, though, that’s the way to go. I just don’t exactly recommend it without checking with them first like Lupin said.
@Lupin Sorry, I misstated my question. I should have said that the texting should not cost me anything to send. The people to whom I want to send the messages all agree to receive them and, in most cases, have nearly unlimited texting plans anyway.
BTW, I can do all that I want to do for my Verizon friends; it’s for my non-Verizon friends that I am having to figure out this system.
@dverhey Yours is a nice solution but requires that I know each person’s cell phone service provider, and that’s often tricky to find out.
@Joe_Freeman,:Ok I just went and opened my AIM for you, to give you step-by-step instructions, since you seem to be ignoring my suggestion, which is a really good one, if I do say so myself.
You just start AIM, click on “AIM”, then click “New IM”, then click “Or send a mobile text message”. You type in your message and the receiver’s phone number, and hit “Send”. You’re done.
Even if it is free, I don’t want to receive them unless it is an emergency. I have Verizon Friends and family but only added texting to one of my phones (my 26 year old son). My cell is for important communication with my family and business. In general, I do not want to be interrupted, wherever I am, whatever I’m doing.
Emails I can answer at my own convenience. Unless you’ve got a critical message from my stock broker – email me.
@Joe_Freeman: See if this site helps you with finding carriers.
You can also go through Gmail if you don’t use AIM. (Along the lines of La_chich_gomela’s suggestion.)
Would you listen to chica already?!
Yeah, she’s certainly had the most convenient suggestion so far…
Gmail has a free SMS service.
@asmonet OK, I see now that I can indeed send texts to my phone from a standalone AIM client as well as from the other instant messaging agents (Yahoo, Google/GMail, Windows Live, and probably others). It mostly works pretty well, but I am going to have to do a lot of experimenting to find out which gives the cleanest messages and has the least hassle. Thanks to all of you who helped me with this.
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