Text messages can be sent and received by email. It can be done online using GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail and so on. Or you can use your favorite email client like MS Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.

To set it up, you need to know an email to SMS gateway of your recipient’s mobile provider. This usually is an email address like

##########@vtext.com

Where ########## is your recipient’s phone number without the country code. When you send email to this address, your friend will receive it as text message on his phone or other mobile device. She can even reply!

So what’s the catch? Mobile carriers keep their gateways as a closely guarded secret, because the process is free and they do not want to lose money on texting plans.

You can get the full list of email-to-text gateways here

Do send yourself a text SMS first to make sure it works as expected. Alternatively, you can call the customer support line of your mobile carrier to get the email to SMS gateway address.