SMS text messaging

[uabros]

Does anyone have any idea how you could go about sending automated text messages from a web page? Is there a company that you can link up with to provide this service?

 

[Peter]

There are 3 ways you can do this.

Firstly the most expensive way is to get your own SMS server but this is of course impractical for the majority of users.

Secondly (and my preferred) you can use a service such as clickatell but each text does cost a couple of cents.

Thirdly you could use the email to sms method. Although this is free it is also awkward. You need to know the network the person is on as well as what email that network uses, not all networks offer this service. An example email address is [email protected] (where 0123456789 is the mobile number).

 

[monaco]

You need to know the network the person is on as well as what email that network uses

That's not too hard...there's a list of them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_gateway#Carrier-provided_email_or_web_to_SMS_gateways

Knowing what network they're on is as simple as a dropdown box bound to the carrier column in the table above.

(of course, if the person sending the sms doesn't know what network the recipient is on...there's a good chance that person is using it to send sms spam)

 

[Peter]

Not quite as easy as that monaco unless you want to list the hundreds of networks around the world.

The list on that wikipedia page is far from complete.

 

[yenerich]

The only free method, but not much secure, is sending emails to the movil phones. The complexity is getting the address of each company. Depending on your contry, it can be finded easily or not.
However it is not much reilable, dont promise your users much or you will have troubles unless you get a payment service like the ones some users point you before.

I develop one small desktop app for my country (Argentina) and i give it for free and works more or less fine. Its just uses my site mail to send to the movil phones in my country. But one company stops suddenly to accept those mails some months ago.

 

[rodriguez]

I believe most cell phone providers also have ways to send text messages to their users via there website. I am sure if you wanted to you could code something that would work with each carriers site to allow users to text from one central location.

 

[yenerich]

I believe most cell phone providers also have ways to send text messages to their users via there website. I am sure if you wanted to you could code something that would work with each carriers site to allow users to text from one central location.

The best way to deal with carriers is finding the email url and then sending an email to the user like : [email protected]

Most of the companies deliver those emails as SMS.