How to Send SMS Text from the Internet

1. Ask your friend which carrier he uses. The most popular U.S. cell phone providers include Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint.
2. Find out the email extension that applies to the cell phone provider. Each provider has one--for example, '@vtext.com' for Verizon or '@tmomail.net' for T-Mobile. This is how non-cell phone users can communicate with subscribers through the Internet. See Resources below for a full listing of the addresses for major U.S. cell phone companies.
3. Add the extension to the end of your recipient's 10-digit cell phone number (leave off the country code). For instance, '2135551212@vtext.com' would be the address for cell phone number 213-555-1212 if the subscriber was a Verizon customer.
4. Open your email account and compose a new message. Enter the email address for the cell phone in the 'To' field.
5. Type in a subject for your text and your message. The message should be around 150 characters or less, just as if you were sending a short text from a phone. Send it and wait a few moments to ensure that it goes through successfully. If you receive a return email from the mail daemon, it means that you typed the phone number or address incorrectly--check the number and provider email information, modify, and try to send again.
6. Receive messages from the cell phone back to your email address. All the recipient has to do is hit 'reply' to send a short message back to you.