XPost: comp.mobile.android, comp.mobile.ipad   
   From: scharf.steven@geemail.com   
      
   On 2/19/2019 9:25 PM, Bob Campbell wrote:   
   > On 2/11/19 8:35 PM, arlen holder wrote:   
   >> How to Send and Receive Text Messages Without a Phone Plan or SIM Card   
   >   
   > TextNow app.   
   >   
   > Works on Mac, Android, iOS and Windows.  Been using it for 3 years.   
      
   Textnow can be useful, but it's not as useful as Google Voice texting.   
      
   With Google Voice, you don't need yet another phone number, your Google   
   Voice number can serve as your mobile number or your home number.   
      
   One advantage of Textnow is that they support some international texting   
   while Google Voice does not. But it's a very limited number of countries   
   on a limited number of carriers in those countries. Unlike the U.S.,   
   many countries have termination fees for SMS. Better to use e-mail,   
   WhatsApp, or WeChat in those cases.   
      
   BTW, Textnow is now also an MVNO, using Sprint and T-Mobile, the two   
   poorest U.S. carriers.   
      
   > Or you can just use email.  There is nothing magic about SMS/MMS texts.   
   > They are all just emails.   
      
   They are not.   
      
   > For example, to "text" to someone with an AT&T phone number, just send   
   > an email to number@txt.att.net, where number = the phone number.   
   >   
   > To send pics, use number@mms.att.net   
   >   
   > Simple.   
      
   OMG it's anything but simple. Do you know the carrier of every person   
   you know? And some MVNOs don't even have e-mail to SMS gateways.   
      
   > T-Mobile is number@tmomail.net   
   >   
   > Complete list of these text/email gateways can be found at   
   > https://github.com/mfitzp/List_of_SMS_gateways/blob/master/email2sms.csv   
      
   There are two issues with this:   
   1. Not every carrier in the world has an e-mail to SMS gateway.   
   2. You have to know which carrier the recipient is on. You can just send   
   the same text to every carrier and let the wrong ones bounce, but that's   
   a pain. Google Voice or Textnow is a much better solution.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)