Interesting... but I wish it had a more international focus. Not everyone lives in North America, you know.

@I work as a meth lab technician isn't really a meth lab tec...:

Yeah, but as far as I know, text prices in most other places aren't nearly as outrageous.

Though I might just be remembering wrong.

I must be a luddite. I only text when the destination phone can't receive my phone call (such as when it's deep in certain buildings), and I can't wait for the person to read his or her email.

Of course texting is built into our company paging system, and so it's free anyway.

@Xkeeper:

Also, if you go back and look at the page, there is quite a bit of international methods at the bottom of the page.

Does it cost or use any texts in your limit to receive them? Thank you.

The @vtext.com, etc. trick is something that every iPhone owner should know how to do. If you are going to be forced to have a data plan, you might as well use it to its fullest.

@Xkeeper: It's still not in where I live...

interesting article...

@ceilingFANBOY:
Between IM, Email and Google Talk, iPhone users should have no reason to ever pay for texting.

Found this out a while back, last month experimenting with a friend. You can also do something similar like this with AIM, you just stick a "+" in front of their number, then IM them as normal. However, replying back to your "texts" is a different story. Seems like when you sign off, replying to an earlier "text" you sent doesn't work right,lol. Emailing is probably more reliable.

BUt doesn't the person receiving the text still pay a fee? It'd be nice if texting via email was free for both parties.

Rajiv

I use the texting feature in Yahoo mail.

@balthisar: I text more than I call, I think...when I'm at work, I don't want to interrupt my work flow by picking up the phone, walking away to somewhere more private, then coming back to resume my work. I'd rather pick up my phone, knock out a text, and continue working while waiting for an answer.

And - I might sound antisocial here - when I just need an answer, a simple "yes" or "no" or "meh" from someone, I don't want to call and get the "how are you?" "i'm fine, you?" because there's that obligation and people seem to be offended when you just want to cut to the chase because you really just need a simple answer.

@ceilingFANBOY: My question is...is texting part of a voice plan or a data plan? I want an iPhone but I really can't justify the cost of the voice plan and the data plan and text messaging as well.

@Rajiv Varma: Yep. That's one of the lessons texting newbies learn - really quick. Since you pay outgoing and receiving, the costs really add up.

I remember when cell carriers offered this service on their websites.

@Baron Von Crogs: I know Sprint still does. I use it all the time.

Is there a way to send a text to a shortcode? (i.e. 46645 for Google) I tried in gmail and it didn't work, and no way to know the carrier to use the email trick.

I do the opposite, in fact - I send emails from my not-so-smart phone by typing in an email address instead of a phone number when writing a text. This method is also how I transfer cameraphone pictures to my memory card slot-free Mac, by emailing them to myself.

@I work as a meth lab technician isn't really a meth lab technician: Don't be stupid. Its still worth a pose even if it doesn't cover 100% of the globe.

@balthisar: I may have you beat in the Luddite race. I completely shut off texting on my phone -- nothing in, nothing out.

@PandaWatch: neither, it's an extra charge on top of those. Just another way to rip you off .

On the odd occasion when you can't text someone's phone you can always try actually calling them... on their phone... live... in person...

Joking aside I pay for the plan shared by my family and find it odd how they all text far more than they call... they have never gone over on their minutes (and the plan is almost as low as it can go).

@I work as a meth lab technician isn't really a meth lab tec...: It covers six continents, so that's not exactly North America-centric, even if you don't happen to live on any of them.

I love the GMail chat option. I use it frequently while sitting at my computer just because it is easier to type on a keyboard than my iPhone.

The Text Message Blog has a complete list of these cell phone email addresses. Check it out here:

http://www.textmessageblog.mobi/2008/03/03/list-of-cell-phone-e-mail-addresses/

@Baron Von Crogs: Verizon does too.

We as a society of smart phone users need to start moving away from SMS. I say this as an avid text messeger myself, but it's the biggest scam the phone company has going and we have much better alternatives these days.

SMS messages are piggy backed on small packets that are constantly sent to the cell phone towers to verify the network connection, these packets are sent all the time by your phone whether or not your sending a text. In other words it costs the phone company almost zero bandwidth to send SMS which makes their profits just about 100%.

You can also do the reverse if you have a text plan but don't have a data plan. You can text to an email address and it is treated as a text message.

On Verizon, its $10/ month for a text plan (500 message + unlimited to Verizon phones) vs. $40 for data.

@Baron Von Crogs: AT&T still does too.

@Hands:

No, I do. I've never even owned a cell phone.

@ceilingFANBOY:

There's a free Application at the iTunes store called SMS for FREE (which is itself a free application) here: [mobilegreatness.com]

That site also has gadgets/widgets for Windows Vista, MacOS, MySpace, and Google Desktop.

@easy2panic: receiving texts through these forms aren't free. the receiver of the texts will have it deducted from their messaging plan.

I used to send texts through AIM and it would add a default "sent from AOL screenname" type message before the actual message itself therefore splitting the text into multiple messages because it would go over the character allowance. This is really annoying for people who are on a smaller messaging plan.

@cozygal36: ask them. some of us text so much that we just go for the unlimited text messaging plans, when available. but i have friends who still pay as much as 25 cents a message, sending or receiving.

i pay $10 for unlimited text and picture messages on my virgin mobile phone. since i am on the phone all day for my job i just kind of don't use them unless it's my doctor calling or something.
but i have AIM and yahoo on my phone and each line exchanged counts as a text so i decided pretty quickly that the unlimited text package was worth it.
like another poster, i too use the email feature to send myself my phone's camera images.
and i email people from my phone all the time. my sister can get her gmail on her phone so i send to her gmail from my phone and she replies from hers.

but if i didn't have such a great plan i'd certainly be looking into these options

Good tip, thanks!

Texting in the U.S. is typically far cheaper than anywhere else.

The thing is that in Europe and elsewhere, making calls is so expensive that texting is relatively cheaper.

You should see how much an iPhone contract costs in Italy...wow, it's ridiculous. And TIM Italia does not offer any form of unlimited texting with the iPhone.

@Rajiv Varma: The fun thing is when I text my spouse, who is on my family plan with me. Since neither of us has texting on our plan, it costs $0.50 to send a text to her. ($0.25 for me to send, $0.25 for her to receive). Since adding a "prepaid plan" would cost something like $10 a month for us, and our texting is usually around $7, i don't have it. But it is annoying that I can't just accept SMS messages from certain people. If I want her to be able to send me texts, I have to allow any idiot to send me the messages.