SMS 411

If AT&T Wireless (formerly Cingular) is your cellular service provider, here’s the lowdown on how to use SMS with your phone.

• Maximum message length: 160 characters
• What happens to longer messages: They’re broken into 160-character segments and delivered piece by piece.
• Cost per message: 20 cents each to send or receive (or less, if you sign up for a text messaging package); messages sent to international numbers cost 25 cents each. Text messaging packages start at $5 per month for 200 messages (10 cents for each additional message) and go up to $20 per month for unlimited texting.
• More information: AT&T text messaging
• Sending email to an AT&T phone: Use the address format 10-digit-number@txt.att.net. Example: 4152221212@txt.att.net

Notes: The address for sending pictures — assuming you have an MMS-compatible phone — is 10-digit-number@mms.att.net.

AT&T also has a group messaging feature, if you want to text a bunch of your friends at once. You create your groups using the AT&T website, and then you get a custom 10-digit code that lets you send texts to everyone on that group. For more information, see the instructions on Group Messaging on AT&T’s site.

You can check with AT&T customer service (dial 611 on your mobile phone) if you have questions about rate plans or if you have problems with your SMS service (e.g. you’re getting unwanted messages).

Updated 8/5/2015

If you think standard text entry sounds like a pain, you’re not alone. Just entering the word “hello” requires you to press the buttons on your phone thirteen times (4-4 3-3 5-5-5 5-5-5 6-6-6). Ridiculous? You bet!

Fortunately, on most phones there’s a better way. It’s called T9 Text Input, and it lets you enter words much faster by pressing each button just once.

In T9 text entry mode, you still press the buttons that have the letters you want–but you press each one a single time, and the phone guesses what you’re trying to spell as you go. For instance, you could write “hello” just by entering 4-3-5-5-6.

In fact, with T9 you may be able to get away without even spelling all the letters. That’s because T9 includes something called “word completion,” which means that it’s constantly guessing, as you type, what words are most likely to match those keys. If you see that it’s guessed the word you want, you can just press the “space” key (also known as the # or pound key) to accept that word, and you don’t have to type any more letters at all.

For instance, if you type 4-3 the phone might guess “he,” but change its guess to “gel” when you continue with the next letter (4-3-5). When you add the fourth letter (4-3-5-5) it will guess “hello” and you can press the space key (#) to enter the whole word plus a space.

To enter T9 mode on most phones, you first need to go to a text entry screen (such as the screen where you create a new SMS text message). Then press the * key until you see “T9” or “T9abc” in the upper left or upper right of your phone’s screen.

For more information on T9, including a handy T9 tutorial, see t9.com.

Creating an SMS text message on your phone isn’t hard. The details will vary somewhat depending on your phone and your carrier, however. We’ll have detailed info for each carrier later, but for now, here’s the general drill:

1. Find the “text messaging” or “SMS” option on your phone’s menu, and select it.

2. You might have to make a second selection, such as “create text message” or “send a message.”

3. Enter the text of your message using the buttons on your phone’s keypad. The simplest but most time-consuming way to do this is standard text entry, also known as multi-tap: You press each button several times until the letter you want appears.

For instance, the “2” key has the letters A, B, and C on it. If you want to enter an A, you’d press the “2” button once. For C, you’d press it three times (2-2-2). (Corrected 8/1/06 — thanks, anonymous commenter!)

For a space, press * (the asterisk or star button) and for other punctuation, you’ll usually press the 1 or 0 key.

4. Once you’ve finished entering your message, press the phone’s menu button (softkey) labeled “save” or “send.”

5. Enter the phone number or email address of the person you want to send the message to.

6. Press the button labeled “send” and off it goes!

Note: If multi-tap text entry sounds like a time-consuming drag, check out T9 text entry — it’s much easier and faster!

Most digital cell phones have the ability to send and receive short text messages. This is usually called short message service (SMS) or text paging.

With SMS, you enter a message using your cell phone’s keypad. You’re generally limited to very short messages — 160 characters, tops — but that’s not usually a problem because it’s pretty time-consuming to “type” on a keypad anyway!

Once you’ve finished your message, you can send to to anyone else’s cell phone by entering their phone number. Off the message goes, and in a few seconds to a few minutes, your friend’s phone will beep and the message will appear on their screen.

You might be wondering why anyone would bother typing out messages laboriously on their phone’s keypad when they could just pick up the phone and talk. There are lots of reasons!

• Text messages are less intrusive. You can send a note to your friend without distracting them from whatever they’re doing at that moment.
• Text messages are quieter. If your friend has put their phone on “vibrate” then they’ll be able to receive and respond to your message in complete silence.
• You can send one SMS to several people at a time. This is a good way to tell a group of friends to meet you at a certain place, or that something is happening at that moment.
• SMS is fun! It’s a bit like passing notes in class. Getting text messages is another way to communicate, and it can be lots of fun.

I started this site because it’s just too hard to find reliable information about SMS (text messaging for cell phones) — especially in the U.S.

Try doing a search for “SMS” on any search engine. Good luck finding any instructions about how to use SMS with your American phone, whether your U.S.-based carrier supports SMS, or how much SMS really costs.

But SMS is not that hard! It’s not that expensive, and it’s not just for fancy European phones either. In fact, more and more people in America are discovering how easy and how much fun SMS text messaging can be.

It’s like email for your phone!

On this site, I’m going to show you how to use SMS to stay in touch with your friends and family, have fun, save money, get information, and maybe even communicate during an emergency. I’ll cover SMS services for Cingular, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint/Nextel, and many other carriers. I’ll bring you news about great new SMS-based services you can access with your phone.

And I’m going to do it in a simple, straightforward, down-to-earth way that anyone can understand. Stay tuned, and I’ll show you everything you need to know about SMS.