SMS 411

If your cellular service provider is Alltel, here’s what you need to know about using SMS text messaging with your cell phone. Alltel calls it “Axcess Text Messaging.”

• Maximum message length: 200 characters [according to commenter Edward, below].
• What happens to longer messages: Split into a maximum of two 100-character messages.
• Cost per message: 15 cents per message sent or received; 25 cents per picture message. (Messaging packs reduce the cost if you send hundreds of SMS messages per month.)
• For more information
• Sending email to your phone: Use the address format: [10-digit phone number]@sms.alltelwireless.com
  Example: 2125551212@sms.alltelwireless.com

Note: The correct spelling is “Alltel,” not “Alltell.”

Updated 8/4/2015

If you’ve got a cell phone from Boost Mobile, here’s what you need to know about using SMS text messaging with your mobile.

• Maximum message length: 160 characters.
• What happens to longer messages: Unknown.
• Cost per message: For pay-as-you-go plans, it’s 10 cents per message to send or receive. For unlimited plan users, it’s 10 cents per message to send; free to receive. (Same pricing when you send messages to overseas recipients.) Multimedia messages (MMS) cost 25 cents each to send or receive.
• For more information: Boost Mobile Messaging FAQ
• Sending email to your phone: Use the address format [10-digit phone number]@sms.myboostmobile.com
  Example: 1234567890@sms.myboostmobile.com

Here’s a handy tip for Boost customers: When you’re sending a text message to a friend who’s also on Boost, you can include reply options right within their message. That way, when they get your SMS, all they have to do is select a reply — they don’t have to key in a whole message back to you. When you’re sending a text message from an email program on your computer, put 2 tildes (~) before the response section and hit return after each response.

For example:
Are you going to the Shania Twain concert?
~~
~ Definitely. (Hit Enter/Return)
~ Nope, wouldn’t be caught dead there.(Hit Enter/Return)
~ Maybe, gotta check with my parents. (Hit Enter/Return)

Updated 8/5/2015

If you’ve got a cell phone from Virgin Mobile, here’s what you need to know about using SMS text messaging with your mobile.

• Maximum message length: 160 characters.
• What happens to longer messages: Anything beyond 160 characters will be cut off.
• Cost per message: 10 cents for each message you send or receive to U.S. numbers. For international recipients, you pay 20 cents/message to send and 10 cents to receive. Monthly Messaging Packs will lower your per-message cost if you use SMS a lot.
• For more information: Virgin Mobile Text Messaging
• Sending email to your phone: Use the address format [10-digit phone number]@vmobl.com
  Example: 5551234567@vmobl.com

Last updated 8/4/2015

Now you know that Google SMS can help you get useful information via text messaging. What else can you do with this handy free service? A lot, including currency conversions, calculations, and even translations!

The key to all of these Google SMS searches is to enter a word describing the kind of search you want to do first, followed by the query. Once you’ve entered your request, just send the text message via SMS to 46645 — that spells “GOOGL” on your keypad. Remember to enter the digits “46645,” not the letters (those letters are just to help you remember the code).

For the basics on Google SMS, see Google via SMS. For the basics on how to compose and send an SMS message, see How to create an SMS message.

Now for a few examples!

Dictionary definitions: Enter the word “define” followed by a word. Example: define supernumerary

Translations: Enter the word “translate” followed by an English word, then the word “in” and the name of the language you want. Example: translate coffee in French

Price lookups: At the store and want to find out if you’re getting a fair price on something? Do a Froogle search on the fly, via SMS, by entering the word “price” followed by a product. Example: price 40GB ipod

Calculator: Sure, your phone probably has a calculator app that can do simple multiplication and division. But Google SMS can do fancy geometric and engineering calculations with figures in many kinds of units. Here’s an example: 400 * 500 feet in acres

Currency conversions: Want to know how far your dollar will go in Germany? Enter a number of dollars followed by “usd” (for U.S. Dollars) followed by “in” and the name of a currency. Example: 100 usd in euros

Find out where an area code or ZIP code is: Just enter the code and send it to Google. Example: 650

Sports scores and game times: Just enter the name of a team and Google SMS replies with the most recent game’s score and the date and time of the next one. Example: sf giants

Need help using Google SMS? Just send the word “help” in an SMS message to Google, and it will send a helpful mini-guide back to you. Or send the word “tips” for some shortcuts you can use with Google SMS.

Did you know that you can search Google on your phone, just by using SMS? That’s right– you don’t need a fancy Web-browsing phone or an expensive Internet access subscription package. All you need is text messaging and a little know-how.

Here’s how it works: You send a message to Google’s SMS number (46645 — that spells GOOGL on your phone’s keypad) and within seconds Google sends an SMS message (or two or three) back to you with the results. Easy!

For example, suppose you wanted to find a pizzeria in for the ZIP code 94401. Bring up your phone’s text messaging screen and enter the message

pizza 94401

Then send it to 46645. (That’s an SMS “short code,” so it’s only 5 digits long instead of the usual 10 digits that most phone numbers are. Don’t worry–it’ll work.) After you hit “Send,” wait a minute.

After Google searches its database it will send the results to you in an SMS message or two. The results will usually include a phone number, address, and the distance and direction from the center of your ZIP code. Here are the two messages Google SMS sent after that search recently:

Amici's East Coast Pizzeria
69 E 3rd Ave
San Mateo, CA 94401
650-343-9392
0.7 mi, SW

Pizza Hut: San Mateo
670 E 3rd Ave
San Mateo, CA 94401
650-548-0200
0.4 mi, S

You can do many other business listing searches by ZIP code or city name, such as florist 90210 or barber san francisco or even specific business names like nordstrom seattle.

You can use Google SMS to search for publicly listed personal names and numbers: John Doe Williamstown MA

You can get movie showtimes by entering the movie’s name and a ZIP code: pirates caribbean 94101

You can even get driving directions via Google SMS, by using “from” and “to” in your query. Here’s an example: from SFO to 101 second san francisco

Here are some more tips on using Google SMS.

There are many other ways to use Google via text messaging. For details, check out the Google SMS how-to guide. Or bookmark this site, SMS 411.net, and come back soon–I’ll have lots more handy information on how to use Google SMS and other services like it.

If you’ve got a T-Mobile cell phone, here’s the lowdown on using SMS text messaging with your mobile.

• Maximum message length: 160 characters (including email address, subject line, and body of the message). The subject line is limited to 16 characters and the body of the message can be no longer than 140 characters.
• What happens to longer messages: Unknown
• Cost per message: 20 cents per message. Messages to non-U.S. recipients cost 15 cents to send; sending messages while you are outside the U.S. costs 35 cents. Many plans offer unlimited messaging, and you can add unlimited text messages for $10 per month.
• For more information: T-Mobile Text Messaging FAQ
• Sending email to your phone: Use the address format [10-digit phone number]@tmomail.net
  Example: 4251234567@tmomail.net

Updated 8/5/2015

If your phone is from Nextel (the business side of Sprint Nextel), here’s what you need to know about using SMS text messaging with your mobile.

• Maximum message length: 500 characters (including letters, punctuation and system-generated characters).
• What happens to longer messages: Unknown
• Cost per message: 10 cents per message; 25 cents per image/audio message (bulk plans available)
• For more information: Nextel Text Messaging FAQs
• Sending email to a Nextel phone: Use the address format [10-digit telephone number]@messaging.nextel.com
  Example: 7035551234@messaging.nextel.com

Note: Some commenters have pointed out that the @messaging.nextel.com address isn’t true SMS and requires the receiver to launch a Java application on their Nextel phone. I haven’t been able to verify that. However, you might try this address for true SMS messages: [10-digit telephone number]@page.nextel.com

Example: 2125551212@page.nextel.com

If anyone has a Nextel phone and can try both addresses, let us know in the comments here!

Nextel’s predictive text-entry mode (aka “T9” mode) is called WORD mode. Cycle through the modes in the lower right of the screen (NUM, ALPHA, WORD) to find WORD mode. Then you can enter text by press one button per letter. More on T9 text entry.

Last updated 4/29/2010

UPDATE: TeleFlip shut down in August 2008, so this service won’t work any more, unfortunately.

Want to send a short message to a friend’s phone, but don’t know what carrier they’re on? Or maybe you just don’t want to bother looking up their phone’s email address. No problem: There’s a handy service called TeleFlip that lets you send short email messages to anyone’s phone — and all you need to know is their phone number.

Here’s how it works:

Open any email program or webmail site. In the To: field, put your friend’s phone number (don’t use any parentheses around the area code), followed by @teleflip.com. For instance, if your friend’s number was 415-555-1212, you’d just enter: 415-555-1212@teleflip.com

In the body of the message, type a short message, up to 160 characters. You can put something in the subject line too, but it will count towards that 160-character limit.

Hit Send. Your message will go to TeleFlip, and TeleFlip will convert it into a text message and deliver it to your friend’s phone via SMS. That’s all there is to it!

TeleFlip is free to use, without registration, for up to 100 messages per month. If you want to send more than that, you’ll have to sign up for one of their subscription services, which start at $5 per month. It should work with any SMS-enabled phones in the U.S. and Canada.

A reader asks: Is there any way to determine a person’s carrier given only their cell phone number? This would be useful if you wanted to send an email to your friend’s phone but only knew their phone number.

Answer: Thanks to number portability, this isn’t easy. In the old days, phone numbers were assigned in “blocks” to different carriers, so all you needed to know was an area code and the 3-digit exchange (the first 3 digits after the area code) to figure out which carrier the number belonged to. But number portability means that anyone can ditch their carrier and take their phone number to a new carrier, so the old “blocks” of phone numbers apportioned to each carrier are gradually being broken up.

However, there are a few sites that claim they can give you this information (for free) and a some other sources that will tell you for a fee.

Because of number portability, these sites are not necessarily going to be accurate.

Free lookups (one at a time, for individuals): Telco Data, Fone Finder, Wireless Flatrate

For fee lookups (for businesses): MX Telecom Carrier Lookup

If you want to find all of the wireless carriers serving your ZIP code, try Wireless Advisor.

(page updated 3/9/2010)

Here’s the lowdown on how to use SMS with a Verizon phone.

• Maximum message length: 160 characters, including the sender’s email address, subject line, and callback number
• What happens to longer messages: Everything after the 160th character will be cut off and discarded
• Cost: $10/month for 500 messages, $15/month for 1,500, or $20/month for 5,000 messages, plus 10 cents for each message over the limit. This applies to instant messages and picture and video messages (“PIX and FLIX” messages), but not Mobile-to-Mobile texts, which are unlimited.
• More information: Verizon TXT Messaging FAQ
• Sending email to a Verizon phone: Use the address format [10-digit-number]@vtext.com
  Example: 9495551212@vtext.com

Last updated 8/5/2015