So, here’s the situation…
You want to send a text message, but for whatever reason, you can’t. Maybe your cell phone reception is poor enough that you might as well be in a lead box. Maybe you were forcibly reminded why leaving your phone on the floor is a bad idea. Perhaps you lost it, or the battery’s dead. Whatever the reason, you don’t have access to your texts at the moment.
That doesn’t mean you’re out of luck, however. There’s a wide array of services that allow you to both send and receive messages without ever having to look away from your computer screen. I’ve just provided a few examples- many, many more exist.
First Party Options: Depending on what provider you’re with, there might actually be a first party desktop application available for you to use. AT&T and Verizon are two noteworthy examples. Check with your provider before downloading any of the applications below- you might save yourself a bit of effort.
Bloove: Like many of the services on this list, Bloove requires a license to access many of its advanced features, but the basics- send and receive text messages, editing your contacts, et-cetera- are available entirely free of charge. This is the platform I myself use and it comes highly recommended.
Oh Don’t Forget: This one requires a subscription fee of $5.00/month or $50/year in order to access it. You can also simply use it to send yourself text message reminders. For example, you can schedule a text for when you get off work that reads “Don’t forget to pick up milk on the way home.” It’s pretty handy as a scheduling application, and works quite well for managing your SMS’s.
Text ‘em: This one’s a free SMS service that doesn’t require a phone number. You can instead save a list of contacts and have their replies go to either the Text ‘em website or to your email inbox. It’s handy for when you don’t have a phone with you and you need to contact someone- though you should be sure to let them know that it’s you in the body of the message.
Google Voice: Another one that doesn’t actually require a cell number. If you use Google Voice, you can also use it to send text messages, as well as receive them. I’ve actually not used it yet, myself, so I can’t speak to its quality- but it’s Google, so that should say enough for most of you, as it is.
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You forgot YIM
Were I king I would ban texting. I don’t like receiving them and I don’t like having to make them, especially with a flip phone.
The Google Voice texting interface is really good. It basically looks just like a Gmail inbox. Lists all your recent text, allows you to expand conversations. I love using it when I’m already sitting at my computer and I don’t feel like picking up my phone and using its touch screen to reply to texts (which is always). It’s so seamless I’ve ended up texting back and forth as if it were an instant message client. It’s especially bad when I’m text-conversing with a friend and we’re both using the GV web interface.
Watch out if you don’t have unlimited texts!