[chris538]

I am trying to send/receive sms's from Italy....and have tried google voice....and it says the destination is not supported I dont really get how Italy is not supported..anyway..and I tried smsmenow, and it appears that isn't working either....

Is their any other app/website that works, or that anybody has had luck with?

Thanks.

PS: I will pay for skype to send sms, but can I also recieve sms if they reply?

[jlb21]

Use the SMS gateways and send email....

Here's how it works....I have a berry but don't have a TXT plan. My daughter has a feature phone but DOES have a TXT plan.

So I email my daughter's cell phone using the Verizon SMS Gateway. she receives it as a TXT. To reply to me, she TXTs my email...thus I receive it as an email on my berry.

For instance when I send to her, I email as follows:

1231234567@vtext.com

Here is one link that should have most of the major SMS gateways....

List of SMS gateways - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


So, in review:

you can use your Berry to send SMS to someone "free" using your existing data plan and sending an email

The other party will receive it as an SMS and can subsequently respond by sending an SMS to your email (which you receive as an email).....

[chris538]

Use the SMS gateways and send email....

Here's how it works....I have a berry but don't have a TXT plan. My daughter has a feature phone but DOES have a TXT plan.

So I email my daughter's cell phone using the Verizon SMS Gateway. she receives it as a TXT. To reply to me, she TXTs my email...thus I receive it as an email on my berry.

For instance when I send to her, I email as follows:

1231234567@vtext.com

Here is one link that should have most of the major SMS gateways....

List of SMS gateways - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


So, in review:

you can use your Berry to send SMS to someone "free" using your existing data plan and sending an email

The other party will receive it as an SMS and can subsequently respond by sending an SMS to your email (which you receive as an email).....

Thanks so much! I will give this a try and give u an update!

[chris538]

Use the SMS gateways and send email....

Here's how it works....I have a berry but don't have a TXT plan. My daughter has a feature phone but DOES have a TXT plan.

So I email my daughter's cell phone using the Verizon SMS Gateway. she receives it as a TXT. To reply to me, she TXTs my email...thus I receive it as an email on my berry.

For instance when I send to her, I email as follows:

1231234567@vtext.com

Here is one link that should have most of the major SMS gateways....

List of SMS gateways - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


So, in review:

you can use your Berry to send SMS to someone "free" using your existing data plan and sending an email

The other party will receive it as an SMS and can subsequently respond by sending an SMS to your email (which you receive as an email).....

Im sorry, I am kinda confused....So I go on my phone, hit compose email....and then what? Where do I put this gateway address? and where do I put my friends number in? I dont really get that part, could u explain please :/

[TheScionicMan]

Im sorry, I am kinda confused....So I go on my phone, hit compose email....and then what? Where do I put this gateway address? and where do I put my friends number in? I dont really get that part, could u explain please :/

First, you need to know the recipient's carrier. Say its ATT. You go to the SMS Gateways link and locate their carrier. So the sample shows:

number@txt.att.net

You replace the word "number" with your friend's number and that is the email address you would send to. Does that make sense?

[jlb21]

Good points. Yes, you would want to confirm costs of doing this in each country. It might not be any cost over the SMS cost (either a hit to SMS bundle or ad hoc $). But the process is the same. But again, good idea to look into things.

[chris538]

First, you need to know the recipient's carrier. Say its ATT. You go to the SMS Gateways link and locate their carrier. So the sample shows:

number@txt.att.net

You replace the word "number" with your friend's number and that is the email address you would send to. Does that make sense?

Yes it does, thank you!

[chris538]

I tried it with my friend in Poland...shes on PlusGSM, so I sent her an email with the correct gateway, and she got it. When she replies does it come to my sms...or email and will I get charged? And Just to clarify...do I get charged when I send it..no right?

[chris538]

It's depending on the countries both parties are in, as you are basically sending an email and receiving an email you'll prolly not get charged at all, but your friend might have to pay twice, once for receiving the email-to-sms message and once to send the text message.
There are 4 steps involved:
a) YOU send an EMAIL to HER (free for you)
b) SHE receives an EMAIL-TO-TEXT message from YOU (she might have to pay for receiving that special type of message)
c) SHE sends a TEXT reply to YOU (she'll have to pay at least text message fee or it is covered by an eventually existing text flat rate)
d) YOU receive an EMAIL from HER (if you got a Blackberry plan receiving an email type of message will be free, again mostlikely )

Thanks so much for explaining it like this ahha, sometimes I have a hard time understanding things like this! Yes, I have the 30$ a month for unlimited data, so emails and all that are included.

When she replies back, I will get it as an email correct, so if I want to reply to that....can I just reply from from the email, do I have to compose a new message.

(I send email, she receives as text, she sends back, I receive as email) *Now..will this conversation keep going if I reply? Or...after she replies, do I have to compose a new message and start over.

[JR A]

Sign up for Google Voice. It's free. You don't even need to have an existing SMS plan.

www.google.com/voice


There's so much more you get with Google Voice, but you can have your own GV number and choose which area code you would like to have. And, if you do choose a GV number, you can even toggle the option to display either your GV number or your existing carrier phone number when you make calls and send text messages.

Also, you can send text messages from your computer through the Google Voice website, or just download the GV app for Blackberry and send SMS with that. The great part is that once you send a text message either from your computer via the GV website or from the GV app on your BB, any incoming SMS to your GV will show up in your SMS inbox AND thusly you will be able to reply to those text message within your SMS inbox as if it were a regular text message conversation! Forget the confusing email stuff...

you'll discover other great things you can do with GV



EDIT:

didn't realize it was for international use and missed that he already tried GV. anyway, hopefully someone else uses this information, lol...

[chris538]

Sign up for Google Voice. It's free. You don't even need to have an existing SMS plan.

www.google.com/voice


There's so much more you get with Google Voice, but you can have your own GV number and choose which area code you would like to have. And, if you do choose a GV number, you can even toggle the option to display either your GV number or your existing carrier phone number when you make calls and send text messages.

you'll discover other great things you can do with GV

GV dosnt work with international sms....

[chris538]

How about WhatsApp? It's free for one year (afterwards it's still cheap if you send loads of msgs through it) and all you and her need is a data plan (and a phone supporting WhatsApp).

OR best solution: she needs a BB as well, BBM.

Yea, she unfortunately doesn't have a data plan on her current phone. I told her to get a Blackberry...hopefully one day....then BBM will be perfetto

[mike in nc]

I use whatsapp to txt with my daughter in UK, she has it on her iphone

[chris538]

I use whatsapp to txt with my daughter in UK, she has it on her iphone

Well she doesn't have a smart phone lol, so cant use that. Im just going to ask her what provider she has and try the gateway method.

[inc188]

try

yuilop worldwide

[chris538]

try

yuilop worldwide

I dont even see a link for blackberry..It says it hasn't even launched internationally yet, its still only in Germany.

[Pirrrate]

yes im sure there is