SMSEmail

August 29, 2009 9:50 PM

Is there a good, free and reliable email-SMS client that allows two way communication via SMS?

I am with At&t and I already get SMS notifications for emails to my Gmail account, as well as Facebook notifications and also use Google mobile for queries. But I want to be able to send emails to people as text messages. I tried one free service, can't remember its name, but the reply feature never worked from my phone, so I canceled.

posted by spacefire to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Not 100% clear on what you're asking, but can't you send text messages directly from your phone to someone's email address? I do that all the time. You can also send email as text message to a phone by using that number and the provider's domain. Example - [e-mail]. This would take care of the replying part.
posted by cmgonzalez at 9:59 PM on August 29 [1 favorite]

Reality check. There is no such thing as free SMS. The closest you will get is flat rate packages with XXX text messages free per month, etc. If they say SMS is free, there's usually some small print that limits the offer in some or other fashion.

Reason that SMS is not free is that the telco's networks are all private and have nothing to do with the internet. The moment that a text message hits their network they want their pound of flesh because they consider their customers a captive market. Somebody, somewhere, is paying for it.

--

For you to send and receive Text messages on your computer all you have to do is connect your phone to your computer. Still not free.

Given the price tag for email and IM this is not going to change any time soon.
posted by w.fugawe at 3:13 AM on August 30

Reality check. There is no such thing as free SMS

Well it depends who you are. An sms costs the carrier nothing to send, since they have to send the data anyway :)
posted by devnull at 6:03 AM on August 30

cmgonzalez: how do I send sms to someone's email?

can someone send me an email to a regular email address, then the email gets forwarded to my cell as SMS, and I can reply via SMS?


I just purchased a generous SMS package (1500/mo) so what I meant by free was no charges besides that. Sorry for the confusion, it was late :)
posted by spacefire at 7:47 AM on August 30

oh, I didn't know you can text an email address, that is pretty great.
But is there a way to use my own gmail address via SMS both ways?
posted by spacefire at 8:03 AM on August 30

"can someone send me an email to a regular email address, then the email gets forwarded to my cell as SMS, and I can reply via SMS?"


You can set up a filter in your gmail account to foward emails to your phone. And then reply as normal or via SMS.
posted by Funky Claude at 1:57 PM on August 30

@Funky Claude: I tried that, the reply SMSs end up in my Gmail box but not further.
Right now I am pondering a pretty cumbersome method of sending emails via text to the original sender, adding a signature to the SMS that tells them to reply to my Gmail account.
I know it's not the best deal, but it's $20/mo cheaper than the cheapest Internet+text plan of AT&T
posted by spacefire at 3:00 PM on August 30