(OT) Sending a phone text to an email address????

I have a basic "dumb" phone. (Prepaid cellphone). I only got it for
emergencies and an occasional quick call when I'm not home. I can NOT
get cell service at home (too far from the tower), but that is one
reason I have a landline (plus that's for my dialup internet too).

Anyhow, I did learn to send and receive phone TEXT messages. They are
an absolute pain in the ass to type, having bad eyes and fingers too big
for those tiny keys. Not to mention I dont have a "full keyboard". I
have to hit the P - Q - R- S button FOUR times to "type" an "S".
So, I'm not willing to type anything lenghty. Even a short one sentence
can take me 10 minutes to enter. But the text messages can be handy, if
it's midnight, and I want to tell someone "Meet me at 9am" (without
waking them up with a call). Or if they are out of range to call, and I
need to tell them something like "My car is out of gas, bring some gas
to my house".

I should mention that while I get too weak of a signal to call people on
my cell, from my house, I can usually send a text.

Anyhow, I have a friend who is sending me 2 or as many as 10 texts per
day. She lives far away. Although I like her, I am not willing to spend
hours typing texts. And she is the kind of person who wont get off the
phone for an hour if I call her, which costs me at least $10, (for a
phone card), so I can not afford to do that regularly. (Not to mention I
hate talking on a phone for more than 10 minutes at a time).

I finally told her to EMAIL me, which is when I found out she has never
even touched a computer, and although she has a more advanced cell phone
than mine, she has no idea how to use email (if she even has it?).

Anyhow, I know there is a method to send a text message from a phone to
an email address. I'm wondering if I give her my email address, if she
can text to my computer? And if so, can I reply back from my computer?
That would simplify things a lot. I dont mind typing an email on a REAL
keyboard, but not on those damn tiny phones.

If this is possible, do I just give her my email address, and tell her
to send the text to my email, instead of sending it to my cellphone
number?

I do know that text messages must be short, they only allow so many
characters (I dont know how many), so I'll still have to keep them
short, but anything is better than poking those f__king cellphone
buttons.

Thanks for all help.

wrote:
I have a basic "dumb" phone. (Prepaid cellphone). I only got it for
emergencies and an occasional quick call when I'm not home. I can NOT
get cell service at home (too far from the tower), but that is one
reason I have a landline (plus that's for my dialup internet too).

Anyhow, I did learn to send and receive phone TEXT messages. They are
an absolute pain in the ass to type, having bad eyes and fingers too big
for those tiny keys. Not to mention I dont have a "full keyboard". I
have to hit the P - Q - R- S button FOUR times to "type" an "S".
So, I'm not willing to type anything lenghty. Even a short one sentence
can take me 10 minutes to enter. But the text messages can be handy, if
it's midnight, and I want to tell someone "Meet me at 9am" (without
waking them up with a call). Or if they are out of range to call, and I
need to tell them something like "My car is out of gas, bring some gas
to my house".

I should mention that while I get too weak of a signal to call people on
my cell, from my house, I can usually send a text.

Anyhow, I have a friend who is sending me 2 or as many as 10 texts per
day. She lives far away. Although I like her, I am not willing to spend
hours typing texts. And she is the kind of person who wont get off the
phone for an hour if I call her, which costs me at least $10, (for a
phone card), so I can not afford to do that regularly. (Not to mention I
hate talking on a phone for more than 10 minutes at a time).

I finally told her to EMAIL me, which is when I found out she has never
even touched a computer, and although she has a more advanced cell phone
than mine, she has no idea how to use email (if she even has it?).

Anyhow, I know there is a method to send a text message from a phone to
an email address. I'm wondering if I give her my email address, if she
can text to my computer? And if so, can I reply back from my computer?
That would simplify things a lot. I dont mind typing an email on a REAL
keyboard, but not on those damn tiny phones.

If this is possible, do I just give her my email address, and tell her
to send the text to my email, instead of sending it to my cellphone
number?

I do know that text messages must be short, they only allow so many
characters (I dont know how many), so I'll still have to keep them
short, but anything is better than poking those f__king cellphone
buttons.

Thanks for all help.


This article has a novel way to reply. Down at the
end of the article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_gateway



So the idea there is, she could send a text to your
phone. Then, you could pick up your email client
on the computer, and craft a 160 character message,
addressing it to her telephone number. A gateway
at the phone company, converts that to a text msg
to send back to her.

It would be a lot harder to craft a mechanism in
the other direction. If she had to craft header
details for an email message, via SMS and the
tiny keyboard, the 160 character limit wouldn't
last long enough to send any payload. Most of the
payload would be wasted making a subject line,
a receiver list, and so on.

Paul


Paul

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 23:05:29 -0500, wrote:

I"ve never texted and I'm trying to get texting declared contrary to my
religion. There is a national convention in November, so I have 8
months to lobby everyone who will be attending. When I get it outlawed
in American, I'm going to get the World Convention to declare it
contrary to the principles of God.

Although there was a commercial which showed someone being texted when
he was at a funeral. That would be the one place where it makes sense,
but I'm afraid there will be no such exception in my religion, when I'm
done, because what is a religion if it keeps making exceptions!

I finally told her to EMAIL me, which is when I found out she has never

That occurred to me too.

even touched a computer, and although she has a more advanced cell phone
than mine, she has no idea how to use email (if she even has it?).

Anyhow, I know there is a method to send a text message from a phone to
an email address. I'm wondering if I give her my email address, if she
can text to my computer?

IIRC, you'll need to tie a phone number to your email address. I'm not
sure you can tie your current phone number to it**, but I don't think
there is much of a charge if any for the new phone number. I don't
think it actually functions as a phone number.

**Unless you have an internet phone already, and that woudl be hard to
do since you have dial-up internet. You'd have to dial up to connect to
the internet to connect to the phone. Isn't that some sort of paradox?

And if so, can I reply back from my computer?

Yes. That you can already do (and that seems like the more important
half anyhow. IIRC each cell phone comany has a way to make an email
address from the cell phone number. Part of that is appending
@att.net or whatever to the pphone number, and maybe you need a prefix
also.

There a webpage somewhere with all the conversion requirements. Maybe
google email to text

And you can learn abou tthe other by checking text to email. .

It's been a year since I checked and I can't remember details, but
please let us know what you fond and and how much you like it.


That would simplify things a lot. I dont mind typing an email on a REAL
keyboard, but not on those damn tiny phones.

I know exactly how you feel. AIUI, one of the levels of hell involves
constant texting, for people now over 30. For people now under 30, they
are in the next room and have to write longhand, constantly. If someone
refuses, he gets, well, sent to hell. .

If this is possible, do I just give her my email address, and tell her
to send the text to my email, instead of sending it to my cellphone
number?

I think you give her this new phone number, but you'll have to check on
that.

I'm guessing phones aren't set up to text to email addressses, though
there are email programs that can be installed as apps on smart phones.
Then she could send and receive email. If she could manage to set it
up. I have a friend who hadn't read her email for 2 years (but hadn't
told me she wasn't reading it, not that any was very important ) until
she and her husband and two kids all got matching new cell phones. I
was over there last week and she was reading, on the phone, an email
about smart dogs that I sent her 6 months ago.

I do know that text messages must be short, they only allow so many
characters (I dont know how many),

I thought it was tweets that had to be short. That texts are only short
because they're such a pain.

I've never sent a tweet either, although it seems much easier to find on
google the twitter address of some fool celebrity than his email
address. I wonder if I send him a tween if he'd actually read it.

so I'll still have to keep them
short,

Thanks for all help.

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 21:05:29 -0700, wrote:

...snip....

Thanks for all help.


get a gmail account, sign up for voice, and select from a long list of
available local telephone numbers [like anumber that looks close to your
number]
Then when THAT number is called by ANYONE, google tries to reach you with
a transfer [with caller ID, you can select which call so ignore],
When you cannot be reached your voice account accepts a voice message of
fairly long length, converts voice message to text and sends to your email
account WITH a small icon to click on if you wish so you can hear the
voice message played on your PC, and/or you can pick up from any location
by calling your own number and then you can listen to your voice messages,
store, save, find out details etc.

This voice to text service can sometimes be very handy for 'written'
confirmation of a telco voice message WITHOUT even having to write
anythingat your PC. However, EVERY attempt to reach that number is sent to
your PC email account, even a hangup with NO voice message.

Quality? I'm amazed. the voice to text is as accurate as the speaker.
NUMBERS almost always come through ok. people with foreign names, not so
well. Mush mouths, not so well, but many times you can get the gist of the
telco AND a phone number off the email text without even listening.

Yep, I'm impressed.

wrote:

I have a basic "dumb" phone. (Prepaid cellphone). I only got it for
emergencies and an occasional quick call when I'm not home. I can NOT
get cell service at home (too far from the tower), but that is one
reason I have a landline (plus that's for my dialup internet too).

(Snip)

Thanks for all help.


Here is a way to text computer to phone and visa versa. Enjoy, Henry

Sprint
Verizon
T-Mobile
AT&T
Virgin Mobile
Cingular
Nextel
US Cellular
Boost
Alltel


where xxxxxxxxxx = your full 10 digit phone number


AT&T:
Qwest:
T-Mobile:
Verizon:
Sprint: or
Virgin Mobile:
Nextel:
Alltel:
Metro PCS:
Powertel:
Boost Mobile:
Suncom:
Tracfone:
U.S. Cellular:


To send a text to an email address, compose a text like you normally would,
and enter the desired email address into the box where you would normally put
a phone number.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/...exts-to-email/

wrote:
I have a basic "dumb" phone. (Prepaid cellphone). I only got it for
emergencies and an occasional quick call when I'm not home. I can NOT
get cell service at home (too far from the tower), but that is one
reason I have a landline (plus that's for my dialup internet too).

Anyhow, I did learn to send and receive phone TEXT messages. They are
an absolute pain in the ass to type, having bad eyes and fingers too
big for those tiny keys. Not to mention I dont have a "full
keyboard". I have to hit the P - Q - R- S button FOUR times to
"type" an "S".
So, I'm not willing to type anything lenghty. Even a short one
sentence can take me 10 minutes to enter. But the text messages can
be handy, if it's midnight, and I want to tell someone "Meet me at
9am" (without waking them up with a call). Or if they are out of
range to call, and I need to tell them something like "My car is out
of gas, bring some gas to my house".

I should mention that while I get too weak of a signal to call people
on my cell, from my house, I can usually send a text.

Anyhow, I have a friend who is sending me 2 or as many as 10 texts per
day. She lives far away. Although I like her, I am not willing to
spend hours typing texts. And she is the kind of person who wont get
off the phone for an hour if I call her, which costs me at least $10,
(for a phone card), so I can not afford to do that regularly. (Not to
mention I hate talking on a phone for more than 10 minutes at a time).

I finally told her to EMAIL me, which is when I found out she has
never even touched a computer, and although she has a more advanced
cell phone than mine, she has no idea how to use email (if she even
has it?).

Anyhow, I know there is a method to send a text message from a phone
to an email address. I'm wondering if I give her my email address,
if she can text to my computer? And if so, can I reply back from my
computer? That would simplify things a lot. I dont mind typing an
email on a REAL keyboard, but not on those damn tiny phones.

If this is possible, do I just give her my email address, and tell her
to send the text to my email, instead of sending it to my cellphone
number?

I do know that text messages must be short, they only allow so many
characters (I dont know how many), so I'll still have to keep them
short, but anything is better than poking those f__king cellphone
buttons.

Thanks for all help.

Google voice is what I use for long distance free calls. I use my computer to
initiate the call, Google voice dials my home phone, I pick it up, then it rings
the dialed #. I would hope that with dial up you could initiate the call and
quickly hang up, then take the incoming call and get connected. Plus, google
voice offers texting on your computer, send and receive.

On Sat, 11 Apr 2015 10:27:38 -0700, "Bob F" wrote:


I do know that text messages must be short, they only allow so many
characters (I dont know how many), so I'll still have to keep them
short, but anything is better than poking those f__king cellphone
buttons.

Thanks for all help.

Google voice is what I use for long distance free calls. I use my computer to
initiate the call, Google voice dials my home phone, I pick it up, then it rings
the dialed #. I would hope that with dial up you could initiate the call and
quickly hang up, then take the incoming call and get connected. Plus, google
voice offers texting on your computer, send and receive.


I never knew such a thing existed... Dont you have to pay 'SOMEONE' for
the service, or pay a monthly fee?
I'd probably have to shut off my moden real fast to do this.... But
with an external modem, that just means shutting off the power switch.

On Sat, 11 Apr 2015 09:06:15 -0500, Henry wrote:

Here is a way to text computer to phone and visa versa. Enjoy, Henry

Sprint
Verizon
T-Mobile
AT&T
Virgin Mobile
Cingular
Nextel
US Cellular
Boost
Alltel

It works! My friend uses US Cellular. I typed her number plus
@email.uscc.net and it worked great. This sure is a big help. I could
not handle those small keys anymore. THANKS!

On 4/11/2015 9:06 AM, Henry wrote:
snip

Here is a way to text computer to phone and visa versa. Enjoy, Henry

Sprint
Verizon
T-Mobile
AT&T
Virgin Mobile
Cingular
Nextel
US Cellular
Boost
Alltel


where xxxxxxxxxx = your full 10 digit phone number


AT&T:
Qwest:
T-Mobile:
Verizon:
Sprint: or
Virgin Mobile:
Nextel:
Alltel:
Metro PCS:
Powertel:
Boost Mobile:
Suncom:
Tracfone:
U.S. Cellular:


To send a text to an email address, compose a text like you normally would,
and enter the desired email address into the box where you would
normally put
a phone number.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/...exts-to-email/


Is this kind of text considered a text message or an email?

I ask because text messages "cost." Although most are included in
cellphone plans, international ones usually aren't, I think. For
example, my cellphone carrier is Verizon. According to its website,
unless you have a "MORE" plan (and I'm not sure what it is or what it
costs), international texts cost 20 cents each to send and the same
amount to receive.

I live in the U.S. and have an iPad without cellphone service. I'm able
to text a friend in Germany at his email address (no phone number
involved), and he texts me at my email address. I think he receives the
text on both his cellphone and his tablet. I receive mine only on the
tablet; I never set up an email account on my Android cellphone, so
anything sent there would have to be by phone number.

--
Jo-Anne

wrote:
On Sat, 11 Apr 2015 10:27:38 -0700, "Bob F"
wrote:


I do know that text messages must be short, they only allow so many
characters (I dont know how many), so I'll still have to keep them
short, but anything is better than poking those f__king cellphone
buttons.

Thanks for all help.

Google voice is what I use for long distance free calls. I use my
computer to initiate the call, Google voice dials my home phone, I
pick it up, then it rings the dialed #. I would hope that with dial
up you could initiate the call and quickly hang up, then take the
incoming call and get connected. Plus, google voice offers texting
on your computer, send and receive.


I never knew such a thing existed... Dont you have to pay 'SOMEONE'
for the service, or pay a monthly fee?
I'd probably have to shut off my moden real fast to do this.... But
with an external modem, that just means shutting off the power switch.

I'm sure they will start charging some day, but so far, no. For a couple years
now.

On Sat, 11 Apr 2015 09:06:15 -0500, Henry wrote:

wrote:

I have a basic "dumb" phone. (Prepaid cellphone). I only got it for
emergencies and an occasional quick call when I'm not home. I can NOT
get cell service at home (too far from the tower), but that is one
reason I have a landline (plus that's for my dialup internet too).

(Snip)

Thanks for all help.


Here is a way to text computer to phone and visa versa. Enjoy, Henry

Sprint
Verizon
T-Mobile
AT&T
Virgin Mobile
Cingular
Nextel
US Cellular
Boost
Alltel


where xxxxxxxxxx = your full 10 digit phone number


AT&T:
Qwest:
T-Mobile:
Verizon:
Sprint: or
Virgin Mobile:
Nextel:
Alltel:
Metro PCS:
Powertel:
Boost Mobile:
Suncom:
Tracfone:
U.S. Cellular:


To send a text to an email address, compose a text like you normally would,
and enter the desired email address into the box where you would normally put
a phone number.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/...exts-to-email/

You should be aware that some telephone companies prevent use of their email-to-text gateways. My
phone is a very cheap and simple, non-smart phone. It can't do emails so I wanted to have short
emails converted to texts. Here is the kicker: the company (orange.co.uk) said that because my phone
could not receive emails, then they would not allow me to use the gateway service! Quite
counter-intuitive, I think. If my phone COULD handle emails then I wouldn't NEED the gateway. Doh!

However, I did sign up for an independent service in the UK called "textlocal" and it works fine at
minimal extra cost.

On Sat, 11 Apr 2015 19:42:40 -0500, Henry wrote:

wrote:

On Sat, 11 Apr 2015 19:07:22 -0500, Henry wrote:

Where does it say anything about limiting your characters to 160?

Henry



The phone just does it. I sent myself a long text, an it got chopped off
at 160. I counted the chracters (approximately). The subject line is
included in the count.

Ah. I don't have a phone that texts so I wouldn't have known that. Thanks.
I text my
grandkids, but they are short messages.

Henry

If you start typing a long message, the phone cuts you off at the limit,
by saying "you have entered the maximum characters" (something like
that). I did not know what the actual number was until someone in this
thread said what it was. It's not much if yoiu have a lot so say. Of
course you can continue in another text message...

On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 00:03:09 -0500, Jo-Anne wrote:

and enter the desired email address into the box where you would
normally put
a phone number.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/...exts-to-email/


Is this kind of text considered a text message or an email?

Good question, but I dont know the answer.....

I ask because text messages "cost." Although most are included in
cellphone plans, international ones usually aren't, I think. For
example, my cellphone carrier is Verizon. According to its website,
unless you have a "MORE" plan (and I'm not sure what it is or what it
costs), international texts cost 20 cents each to send and the same
amount to receive.

My prepaid Tracfone is fairly costly for the cards, but since I dont
normally use many minutes, it's cheaper than paying a monthly bill. But
I do have one advantage. Text messages are free! (dont deduct minutes).

I live in the U.S. and have an iPad without cellphone service. I'm able
to text a friend in Germany at his email address (no phone number
involved), and he texts me at my email address. I think he receives the
text on both his cellphone and his tablet. I receive mine only on the
tablet; I never set up an email account on my Android cellphone, so
anything sent there would have to be by phone number.

That's weird. I dont know how you can send a text with no cell service!
But as long as it works, enjoy it!

My phone is supposed to be able to use gmail. It even has a built in
bookmark for gmail. Yet, it refuses to work when I try to sign up for
gmail on the phone. Then, I signed up for gmail on my computer. Got that
working, but when I try to connect to it on my phone, it gives me an
error message, saying something like "you are not the actual owner of
this email address", which then locks my access to it on the computer,
until I answer some questions and then they have to call me to verify.
I have tried this several times, and finally said "the hell with it". At
least now I can send an email thru a text.... or is that the other way
around?

Since my phone is not a "Smartphone", it keeps proving that it's DUMBER
THAN A DOORNAIL!



--
Jo-Anne

On Sat, 11 Apr 2015 22:25:43 -0700, "Bob F" wrote:

?
I'd probably have to shut off my moden real fast to do this.... But
with an external modem, that just means shutting off the power switch.

I'm sure they will start charging some day, but so far, no. For a couple years
now.


Someday soon, we will be charged to breathe. Each breath will be
metered, and we will pay per breath. If we dont pay, we will be
disconnected, and drop dead!

On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 05:03:58 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 00:03:09 -0500, Jo-Anne wrote:

and enter the desired email address into the box where you would
normally put
a phone number.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/...exts-to-email/


Is this kind of text considered a text message or an email?

Good question, but I dont know the answer.....

The army has agreed to refer to it whichever way it wishes to be
referred to.
...
That's weird. I dont know how you can send a text with no cell service!
But as long as it works, enjoy it!

My phone is supposed to be able to use gmail. It even has a built in
bookmark for gmail. Yet, it refuses to work when I try to sign up for
gmail on the phone. Then, I signed up for gmail on my computer. Got that
working, but when I try to connect to it on my phone, it gives me an
error message, saying something like "you are not the actual owner of
this email address", which then locks my access to it on the computer,
until I answer some questions and then they have to call me to verify.
I have tried this several times, and finally said "the hell with it". At

ROTFL

least now I can send an email thru a text.... or is that the other way
around?

ROTFL

Since my phone is not a "Smartphone", it keeps proving that it's DUMBER
THAN A DOORNAIL!



--
Jo-Anne