How to Receive Text Messages Online

1. Create an account with Yahoo! Mail or Gmail. This is free and should only take a few minutes to set up. Gmail users who sign up for Google Voice (see Resources) are assigned a phone number, which they can distribute to friends and associates who can call or text this number. Meanwhile, Yahoo users can send and receive text messages via Yahoo! Messenger (see Resources).
2. Login to your Google Voice account periodically to see if you have any new text messages. Click 'Text' on left side of your screen to pull up all of your messages. If 'Text' appears in bold then you have unread messages, with the number appearing in parentheses.
3. Open your Google Voice account and proceed to 'Settings' in the top right corner of the screen. Select 'Voice settings' and click the 'Voicemail & Text' tab. Check the box next to 'Forward text messages to my email' to have the text messages sent to your default Gmail email account. Standard messaging rates will likely apply. Finally, click 'Save Changes.'