how to send free SMS

x4x5x1x · 07-23-2008, 04:26 PM

It has come to my attention that many people dont know the sms trick with AIM.

what you will need:

AOL Instant Messenger account
AOL Instant Messenger (mobile chat, agile, apollo)
a person's cell number

Ok all you need to do is add a person's phone number to your buddy list. In the U.S. phone numbers are set up like so (555)444-3333. When you add it to your buddy list it should look exactly like this +15554443333. What you do is add the + sign and a 1. The 1 is what people in the U.S. have to dial for a number outside our own area code. How this works in other countries im not sure. The person you send the message to DOES NOT have to have AIM. The message you send will go right to their phone. If you are running firmware 2.0 and have the *AIM app from the appstore you should be able to do this right from your phone. If you are jailbroken and have any of the chat clients that offers AIM you should be able to do the trick with that. also if you are sitting at your computer and have AIM running you can use that also. The only drawback is if the person replies it will go to your AIM. Now that wont be a problem if you stay connected to the chat client. If you close it the message will go to outer space, never to be found again. The other possible drawback is that this might be a U.S. only trick. If some of you from other countries could try this and let us know that would be great!

EDIT: *DOES NOT WORK WITH AIM APP

questions and comments are always welcome.

nominations for the new contest would be REALLY appreciated

bigmac · 07-23-2008, 04:48 PM

What shows up as a reply? Can the person reply back? Thanks for posting...

x4x5x1x · 07-23-2008, 10:53 PM

ok i just sent myself a message to my phone and heres what it says

[iPhone] x4x5x1x: (using AOL IM)hey whats up (you can reply to this message)

i replied to myself with"hey how goes it".
[AIM window] hey how goes it

i then replied back to the phone it came up with
[iPhone] x4x5x1x: (using AOL IM)nothing at all (you can reply to this message)

so pretty much the person with the phone gets notified you are sending a message from AIM with every text. the person using AIM gets a normal response.

hope that helped

SikShift · 07-23-2008, 11:26 PM

Nice post, but I have unlimited text on my family share plan, so it won't help me much

Hawk · 07-24-2008, 09:06 AM

I am not convinced that this is "Free". I believe it still counts against your Text messages (if you have 200 and use this to receive and then reply, you have used 2 of your 200)
That said, it's still pretty cool. nice find.

x4x5x1x · 07-24-2008, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by Hawk

I am not convinced that this is "Free". I believe it still counts against your Text messages (if you have 200 and use this to receive and then reply, you have used 2 of your 200)
That said, it's still pretty cool. nice find.

i cant vouch for the AIM app from the appstore yet. ive been using this trick with mobile chat and agile for a while now.....no cost. the only person that it costs is the person receiving the "text". think about it, the message is going through AIM not AT&T, or other provider for that matter. there is no way for them to keep track of those messages so they cant charge you. if you are doing it from your computer how could it charge to your phone...?

x4x5x1x · 07-28-2008, 08:56 AM

bump...bump bump (thats the sounds of the 15's hittin in my trunk)

sorry about the kmk haa

Swagger · 07-28-2008, 09:47 AM

I have the AOL, AIM application from Apple's App Store. I tried this method and it does not work for me. I'm using my iPhone, not a computer...Mark

lensam · 07-28-2008, 01:56 PM

I tried it from the PC and it worked fine

Swagger · 07-28-2008, 05:03 PM

AT&T/Apple probably found a way to block this feature from being used. I'm sure Apple noticed this trick and disabled it before putting AIM on the App Store.

I tried it on my computer and it does work, but not from the iPhone. Mark