The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Trying to send international text mesasges for free
Akilae729
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My girlfriend is going abroad for the semester in italy and I'm trying to figure out a way that I can send text messages back and forth cheaply. Both of us burn through about a thousand texts a month and it has become quite a part of our lives. We already plan on sending a lot of emails and using skype, but it would be nice to communicate on the fly.
My first idea was to simply have a computer running at all times that has two AIM accounts open which are both sent to mobile forwarding. Texts could be sent to AIM and then AIM would forward them to either of our mobile devices, circumventing the cost of an international text message. However, I have only used AIM for texting in the United States. Can you do this in Italy as well, or will a text to AIM be still considered a text to the US?
Are there any ways you guys know of to send cheap international texts? Both of us are on Cingular right now and I think my girlfriend plans on getting a gsm phone and buying prepaid cards in Italy.
My first idea was to simply have a computer running at all times that has two AIM accounts open which are both sent to mobile forwarding. Texts could be sent to AIM and then AIM would forward them to either of our mobile devices, circumventing the cost of an international text message. However, I have only used AIM for texting in the United States. Can you do this in Italy as well, or will a text to AIM be still considered a text to the US?
Are there any ways you guys know of to send cheap international texts? Both of us are on Cingular right now and I think my girlfriend plans on getting a gsm phone and buying prepaid cards in Italy.
Akilae729 on
0
Posts
So, you could get her to send you a prepaid Italian Simcard, she would then get the same (or more likely a contract if you're sending that amount of texts) and whenever she texts you, she sends it to your Italian simcard. You text to her US simcard.
My fiancee and I have done this.
If you want total privacy, just make two private Twitter accounts, just for use with each other, and set up both of your phones to receive a notification when the other person tweets. It works exactly like texting, only each message will have the other person's username in front of it.
Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Last.fm | Pandora | LibraryThing | formspring | Blue Moon over Seattle (MCFC)
Does texting twitter act as a normal text message when you are in another country?
But unless her phone is ancient, there's probably a Twitter app for it, and as long as you've got your phone set to receive notifications of all her tweets, it will work just the same.
Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Last.fm | Pandora | LibraryThing | formspring | Blue Moon over Seattle (MCFC)
I think the international phone that she is going to get is pretty much a glorified GO phone, so probably no chance of any sort of apps.
I was looking at the cingular website and it looks like international text can simply be added onto a calling plan. Might be simpler just to pay a few extra bucks a month
So basically the way it worked was in Japan, I would send a text from my phone to XXXXXXXXXX@vtext.com (replace the Xs with the 10 digit phone number), and then it would show up on her phone as an "email" from YYYYYYY@softbank.ne.jp (we actually get our own usernames in Japan, it's not just a phone number!), and she could respond accordingly using her phone. Didn't cost anything more than a normal text message would.
EDIT: Just to be clear, there are no computers involved in this, when I say send an email, I mean from the phone itself.
I am fairly sure your AIM idea won't work, as I believe the AIM text messaging only works in the US. It didn't in the UK when I tried it a couple of years ago.