How to send SMS messages from a computer

Q. Can you recommend a service that will allow me to send text messages from my PC to cell phones? I have found a few of these services on the web that advertise free SMS text messaging and free is the right price, but also makes me nervous. I don’t want to find out that the people I text from these services start receiving unwanted advertising or other texts. I mostly plan on texting the kids on a baseball team. And that is not the audience I want to provide to some unscrupulous business. What do you suggest?

A. When most of us think of SMS (text) messaging, we envision frantic fingers tapping away at the teeny tiny keyboard of a cell phone. But SMS messaging is not the sole domain of mobile devices. With the right information, sending SMS messages can be done from the comfort of your home PC, using a full sized keyboard.

For example, if you know the cell phone number and the carrier you can send SMS messages directly from your email program. To do this, use the phone number as the name and the corresponding carrier address for the part of the address to the right of the @ symbol.

Let’s say you spouse has a phone number of 555-123-1234 and is using T-Mobile as their carrier. All you would need to do is open a new email message and send to 5551231234@tmomail.net. You are limited to 160 characters, so remember to keep the message brief and to the point.

For a full list of SMS gateways check out this Wikipedia article.

Another way to send SMS from your computer is to use Yahoo! Instant Messenger which has supported SMS messaging for as long as I can recall and, as an added bonus, doesn’t require that you know what carrier the recipient is using. Only their cell phone number.

Additional options include sending SMS using Gmail Chat, as well as any number of online services that let you do this from a Web page. But as you so rightly pointed out, I am not sure I would want to supply those sites with the contact information of my friends and family. I feel confident that the email, Yahoo! and Gmail options are safe and more than suitable alternatives to fat fingering a message on your cell phone.