Howdy loyal 930 readers! Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings to all! Charlie here, the undercover redneck, about to tell you how to give your cellular provider the gift you’ve always wanted: free unlimited SMS text messaging! I’m talking 100% free (as in beer).
“That’s impossible!” you’re must be saying. “Not in this country!”
Folks, behold the power of Google! Some may argue that Google is becoming the new Microsoft, or worse, an even more powerful entity with access to unfathomable terabytes of the world’s personal information. But who cares, with a corporate motto like “don’t be evil,” how can you not trust them? Especially when they offer free text messaging!
Enough banter already — here’s what you need to get free unlimited SMS text messaging:
- A Google Voice account: http://www.google.com/voice/
- A Google Voice phone number (generally included with a Google Voice account)
- A smartphone, preferably one capable of running the Google Voice app (currently BlackBerry and Android only)
- Note: Any smartphone that has a decent mobile web browser will work via the Google Voice web interface
- Another note: A BlackBerry with a push email account is best suited for this setup. I’ll explain why later.
As you can see, the requirements are pretty basic. (It is assumed that if you’re nerdy enough to be reading this website, you’re going to have a smartphone and more than likely every type of Google account known to exist).
Now, if you’ve got a BlackBerry, this is how you can set it all up with minimal compromise:
- Log into your Google Voice account. Set up a new forwarding phone with your cell phone’s number. (Settings > Phones)
- Enable SMS to E-Mail forwarding. (Settings > Voicemail & SMS > “Forward messages to my email”)
- Log into BlackBerry’s email configuration (older BlackBerries do this via the BIS web interface, newer BlackBerries have an app that works right from the phone) and set up a new email filter in whichever email account Google Voice is forwarding your SMS messages to.
- When Google forwards an SMS message to your email, the subject line contains “[SMS]” followed by the sender’s name (if their name and number is entered into your contacts). Edit your new filter to catch any message with “[SMS]” in the subject. Then select “Forward messages to the device” and “Level 1 notification.” The key here is to set up a rule that grabs all email messages coming from Google Voice and forwards them to your BlackBerry as a “Level 1″ message. This allows you to differentiate your text messages and voicemail notifications coming from Google Voice from all the other emails that flood your inbox throughout the day.
- Edit your BlackBerry profile settings to choose a distinct sound/alert/ringtone for Level 1 messages. Select something that you want to hear every time you get a new text message or voicemail notification.
- Distribute your new Google Voice number to all your friends and family. Explain that they can keep calling you on your old number, or they can call you on your new Google Voice number (assuming you set up your cell as a forwarding phone), but if they want to text you, they’ll have to use your new Google number. This may confuse some non-technical types, so just tell them you got a new cell number and give them your Google Voice number if they’re confused.
- Start receiving text messages free of charge! Reply in kind by simply replying to the SMS forwarding email, or launching your Google Voice app or the Google Voice web interface and replying.
- Call up your cellular provider and tell them to shove their text messages where the sun don’t shine. If you don’t specifically tell them to block all incoming text messages, they’ll just cancel whatever texting plan you currently have (if you have one) and charge you per individual incoming/outgoing message.
At this point, SMS messages sent to your Google Voice number will now be automatically forwarded to your email. If you have a BlackBerry with an email account that supports push email, you even receive text messages instantly — just like a real text message. The problem is that your BlackBerry will not differentiate between SMS messages you get via email forwarding and all the other emails you get on a daily basis. I don’t know about you, but I don’t instantly check my BlackBerry every time I get a routine email. This obviously creates a problem when you’re attempting to use a mode of communication where messages are expected to be delivered and read almost instantly. Step 3 addresses this issue.
I’ve been doing this for several months now, and it works without a hitch! Text messaging at the rates charged by commercial carriers is outrageously expensive. 160-character messages use almost no bandwidth — costing cellular providers next to nothing to route them — yet if you do the math, you are paying upwards of $1,300 per megabyte for the privilege of communicating in such a way that actually frees up carrier capacity by keeping you off the phone. After all, a few bytes of data uses a lot less bandwidth and a lot less spectrum than a voice channel used during a cellular telephone call would.
So, give yourself the gift you’ve always wanted — and help show the cellular providers in this country that we are no longer willing to spend $1,300 per megabyte for the privilege of sending text messages.