May 10th, 2012 by ElizaP

There are many packages offered by cell phone carriers nowadays that offer unlimited texting. But what if you forget your phone and need to get in touch with someone on your list? Or what if you don’t own a cell phone but want to be able to get in touch with friends or family without sending an email?

Texting Via Email
If you know the carrier of the recipient, you can send them a text message via email. To find the email-to-SMS gateway for their carrier, simply visit the site of that carrier. The address could look something like cellnumber@pm.att.net. Once you have the address, simply open your email program, type your message and hit send.

Texting Via IM Programs
Programs like Yahoo Messenger and AIM will allow you to send a message to a cell phone. If you’re using AIM, you simply add +1 to the recipient’s phone number in their name box. For Yahoo Messenger, type in the number at the top of the chat window and hit enter.

Free Online Texting Services
There are web sites which anyone can visit to send a text message for free. Some examples are freetxt.ca, txt2day.com and ForeverSMS. A quick search will display several results for free texting sites. But be aware that some sites only work within a specific region.