Your Ad Here

Stupid cell phone tricks

For a project I’m working on we need to send text messages to mobile phones. We could buy or rent an SMS gateway, but most carriers in the US allow you to email a message to yourphonenumber@yourcarrier and it will appear as a text message on the phone. For example, my phone is currently with AT&T so you can send a short email to 9166002497 AT mobile.att.net and it will show up on my phone.

The problem is figuring out what carrier the phone number is at so you can append the correct hostname to the email address. John Wehr pointed out Teleflip, a service that lets you send email to yourphonenumber@teleflip.com and have it delivered to the phone, regardless of carrier. That’s dandy, but I don’t want to rely on some free, third party service that might change or go away later.

After spending some time looking for a way to determine the phone’s carrier, it hit me: I don’t really care what carrier they’re using. If I send the message to the incorrect carrier, it won’t get delivered to the wrong person because phone numbers are unique. It will just bounce. So if I wanted to send a message to 212-555-1212, I could just send a text message to 2125551212@mobile.att.net, 2125551212@messaging.sprintpcs.com, 2125551212@messaging.nextel.com and so on. Send to them all and ignore the bounces. Based on the bounces, you could even learn which carrier someone’s using and just send to that one in the future.

It’s not terribly polite to send email that you know is going to bounce, but it’s not a huge load on the servers and you’d only do it once for each new number.

Tamyra
January 29, 2008 8:32 PM

I am trying to get into my boyfriend’s text messaging without him knowing. Is that possible?

auratus
February 4, 2008 11:14 PM

what about instant messenger services, such as AIM, that are extended onto cellular devices? is there any way to lookup cell phone numbers if you have a screenname?

READTHISPLEASE
February 6, 2008 9:11 PM

i need to be able to text somebody and make my number private. anyone know how?

Sarge
February 9, 2008 11:56 AM

I want to inundate an ASSHOLE that is sending my daughter disgusting test messages! EVERYONE THAT SEES THIS SEND A TEXT TO: [redacted - Adam]

I owe you all for this favor, THANKS and right on!

Sarge, out

lex
February 13, 2008 3:38 PM

for the the women, if you “think” you should check your boyfriends text messages, isn’t that enough to bounce? if you find something, you’re either gonna have a reason to leave; or stay, with what you find, in your head all the time. If you find nothing, you won’t be satisfied. You’ll constantly be preoccupied by the thoughts of something going on behind your back. Fuckin leave the cellphones out in the open! No worries! If someone has a problem with that, it’s for a reason! [i.e., it’s not a matter of “principle”]. I’m a man, and I fuckin dump any chick that’s cautious about who she lets use her cellphone.

lex
February 13, 2008 3:38 PM

for the the women, if you “think” you should check your boyfriends text messages, isn’t that enough to bounce? if you find something, you’re either gonna have a reason to leave; or stay, with what you find, in your head all the time. If you find nothing, you won’t be satisfied. You’ll constantly be preoccupied by the thoughts of something going on behind your back. leave the cellphones out in the open! No worries! If someone has a problem with that, it’s for a reason! [i.e., it’s not a matter of “principle”]. I’m a man, and I dump any chick that’s cautious about who she lets use her cellphone.

anon
March 3, 2008 10:58 AM

Matt
April 7, 2008 6:51 AM

I don’t know who posted this “Stupid cell phone tricks” thing, but dude, GENIUS! It’s so simple!

Slicker
May 2, 2008 1:23 PM

whats the addy for verizon users?

John
May 5, 2008 11:50 AM

already thought about this, however, if teleflip can do it there’s gotta b a way.

contact [at] johncaza [dot] com if you have any suggestions!!

John

Anna
May 30, 2008 1:26 AM

To text Verizon users, send msg to [10-didgit phone number]@vtext.com.

Message length is limited to 160 characters, including the email address.

Answer comes from Verizon: https://text1.vzw.com/text/jsp/textmessagingfaq.jsp#howdoisendtxtmsgfromemail

Anna
May 30, 2008 1:26 AM

To text Verizon users, send msg to [10-didgit phone number]@vtext.com.

Message length is limited to 160 characters, including the email address.

Answer comes from Verizon: https://text1.vzw.com/text/jsp/textmessagingfaq.jsp#howdoisendtxtmsgfromemail

Travis McCrea
June 6, 2008 2:17 AM

If I may suggest: Have a drop down box with the different carriers that you have known email addresses for… then… once they select it… you already have it because $carriermail = $carrierselect or whatever you call them…

It would cut your server load down a lot

Becca
August 19, 2008 9:52 PM

Someone has been sending my fiance dirty videos, pictures, etc. and he won’t tell me who it is. We are going through t-mobile and I can’t figure out how to pull up the text message history. Can you please Help!

Pamela
September 18, 2008 9:23 PM

I always have to block this guy that beat me badly ,,he went to jail,,and got out ,,we knew all the same people and he manages to get my number always ,,he calls private # ,,and he makes me cry …if I could make him change his number which he never knows what that feels like ,,to pay big money to get rid of someone,,,maybe someone can find a way to make him do this ,,,god bless you if you can ,,I have Chemo treatments am sick and he still knows I am not well and does this ..his number [REDACTED personal info]

These are the last 15 comments. Read all 130 comments here.


Your comments:

Text only, no HTML. URLs will automatically be converted to links. Your email address is required, but it will not be displayed on the site.

Name:

Email: (not displayed)

If you don't feel comfortable giving me your real email address, don't expect me to feel comfortable publishing your comment.

Website (optional):

Lijit Search

Best Of

Recently Read

Get More

Subscribe | Archives

Recently

Cloud Reliability (Aug 12)
Would you like to take bets as to whether Amazon or Google have better reliability and safety than your local network service providers?
George Carlin (Jun 22)
"I'm always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize I'm listening to it."
Business lessons from the Kitchen (Jun 9)
The Gordon Ramsay School of Business
Under The Radar twittering (Jun 3)
My live stream from Under the Radar
Measuring a CEO's mind (May 29)
Not everything that's important can be measured. Not everything that can be measured is important.
Golden 1: breaking customer expectations (May 25)
Take a potential new user and give them a poor signup experience, then call them a liar.
Sprout Test (May 7)
A test post for Sprout widgets.

Subscribe to this site's feed.

Elsewhere

Feed Crier
Get alerted by IM when your favorite web sites and feeds are updated.
SacStarts
The Sacramento technology startup community.
Pinewood Freak
Pinewood Derby tips and tricks
Del.icio.us
My tagstream at del.icio.us.
Waddlespot
My son's Club Penguin community. News, blogs, tips, and tricks.

Contact

Adam Kalsey

Mobile: 916.600.2497

Email: adam AT kalsey.com

AIM or Skype: akalsey

Resume

PGP Key

©1999-2008 Adam Kalsey.
Content management by Movable Type.