Sending text messages via php

Ye' old general discussion board. Basically, for everything that isn't covered elsewhere. Come here to shoot the breeze, shoot your mouth off, or whatever suits your fancy.
This forum is not for asking programming related questions.

Moderator: General Moderators

User avatar
Benjamin
Site Administrator
Posts: 6935
Joined: Sun May 19, 2002 10:24 pm

Sending text messages via php

Post by Benjamin »

Is there a way to do it? If so how would it work? Just curious.
jmut
Forum Regular
Posts: 945
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 3:54 am
Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
Contact:

Re: Sending text messages via php

Post by jmut »

agtlewis wrote:Is there a way to do it? If so how would it work? Just curious.
Be more specific :roll:
User avatar
Benjamin
Site Administrator
Posts: 6935
Joined: Sun May 19, 2002 10:24 pm

Re: Sending text messages via php

Post by Benjamin »

jmut wrote:
agtlewis wrote:Is there a way to do it? If so how would it work? Just curious.
Be more specific :roll:
Is there a way to send a text message using php to a cellular phone?
Roja
Tutorials Group
Posts: 2692
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 10:30 pm

Re: Sending text messages via php

Post by Roja »

agtlewis wrote:Is there a way to send a text message using php to a cellular phone?
Depends on which cellphone. Most providers in the US provide a email gateway to their cellphones, so you just send an email to:

111-222-3344@provider.com

Or however they have it setup. Google each provider. There are essentially four majors in the US, making it fairly simple. (Cingular, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile).
User avatar
Chris Corbyn
Breakbeat Nuttzer
Posts: 13098
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:57 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by Chris Corbyn »

We're in the UK and we use Kapow

http://www.kapow.co.uk/

If you want to do this from your own server with your own hardware you need some GSM hardware so I'd just go with an existing gateway.
Roja
Tutorials Group
Posts: 2692
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 10:30 pm

Post by Roja »

d11wtq wrote:We're in the UK and we use Kapow

http://www.kapow.co.uk/

If you want to do this from your own server with your own hardware you need some GSM hardware so I'd just go with an existing gateway.
Egads! You have to PAY to send to people? Craziness!

Don't phones in the UK have email-to-phone options?
User avatar
Chris Corbyn
Breakbeat Nuttzer
Posts: 13098
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:57 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by Chris Corbyn »

Roja wrote:
d11wtq wrote:We're in the UK and we use Kapow

http://www.kapow.co.uk/

If you want to do this from your own server with your own hardware you need some GSM hardware so I'd just go with an existing gateway.
Egads! You have to PAY to send to people? Craziness!

Don't phones in the UK have email-to-phone options?
Hmm... Mobile Phones (well, you guys call 'em cell phones :P) can do that via MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) over GPRS/3G yeah but nobody uses it. We're all SMS mad. I'll organise more things with friends over text messages then I will by calling them. It only costs a few pence a message (for me at least) :D
User avatar
Chris Corbyn
Breakbeat Nuttzer
Posts: 13098
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:57 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by Chris Corbyn »

I've just read my first post and i kinda see why you asked that now :) When I said "we" I meant, "on our project at work". Not "in the UK we all use kapow".
Roja
Tutorials Group
Posts: 2692
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 10:30 pm

Post by Roja »

d11wtq wrote:Hmm... Mobile Phones (well, you guys call 'em cell phones :P) can do that via MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) over GPRS/3G yeah but nobody uses it. We're all SMS mad. I'll organise more things with friends over text messages then I will by calling them. It only costs a few pence a message (for me at least) :D
Sounds like a difference in terminology here.

In the US, the email-to-phone results in a text message on the phone, while it sounds like via MMS, you get a different result. The message itself costs the owner of the phone (but you can get plans with unlimited/flat-monthly-rate), but doesn't cost to send, while Kapow costs the sender as well.

Is there a no-cost-to-send email gateway for UK phones?
User avatar
Chris Corbyn
Breakbeat Nuttzer
Posts: 13098
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:57 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by Chris Corbyn »

Roja wrote:Is there a no-cost-to-send email gateway for UK phones?
Well, not all phones support it but most of the providers allow you to send emails to XXXXXXXXXXX@service-provider.com where XXXXXXXXXXX is the number of the mobile phone. It shows as a MMS message on the recipients handset though. I've never heard of anyone over here doing what you're referring to. SMS is the more generic option since it's been around since the early 90's... that's what I'd call a "text-message" too so I just assumed that's what the OP was referring too ;)
d3ad1ysp0rk
Forum Donator
Posts: 1661
Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2003 8:31 pm
Location: Maine, USA

Post by d3ad1ysp0rk »

Roja
Tutorials Group
Posts: 2692
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 10:30 pm

Post by Roja »

d11wtq wrote:Well, not all phones support it but most of the providers allow you to send emails to XXXXXXXXXXX@service-provider.com where XXXXXXXXXXX is the number of the mobile phone. It shows as a MMS message on the recipients handset though. I've never heard of anyone over here doing what you're referring to. SMS is the more generic option since it's been around since the early 90's... that's what I'd call a "text-message" too so I just assumed that's what the OP was referring too ;)
Oh, so whats the downside to just sending the email that way? I mean, if it costs the sender to send via SMS, why would you pay to do so?
User avatar
Chris Corbyn
Breakbeat Nuttzer
Posts: 13098
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:57 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by Chris Corbyn »

Roja wrote:
d11wtq wrote:Well, not all phones support it but most of the providers allow you to send emails to XXXXXXXXXXX@service-provider.com where XXXXXXXXXXX is the number of the mobile phone. It shows as a MMS message on the recipients handset though. I've never heard of anyone over here doing what you're referring to. SMS is the more generic option since it's been around since the early 90's... that's what I'd call a "text-message" too so I just assumed that's what the OP was referring too ;)
Oh, so whats the downside to just sending the email that way? I mean, if it costs the sender to send via SMS, why would you pay to do so?
Because there's a tonne of people here that can't receive MMS messages so you wouldn;'t be certain they were going to get the message. You need a (relatively) fancy phone to be able to read these. On top of that, it's not a culture we have here and thus, nobody would bother to read the message... when I said we're all SMS crazy I meant it :) SMS is extremely heavily used in the UK. I'd guess that the service providers make more £££ from SMS than they do from actual phone calls.

I'm pretty sure there's plenty of people with SMS enabled phones over in the US because I've sent texts to people from this forum before :)

Virtually every Television competition, promotion on crisp packets etc don't just say "Call this number" anymore, they say "Send a text message to XXXXX".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_mess ... Popularity
Wikipedia wrote: Europe follows next behind Asia in terms of the popularity of SMSing. In 2003, an average of 16 billion messages were sent each month. Users in Spain sent a little more than fifty messages per month on average in 2003. In Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom the figure was around 35–40 SMSs per month. In each of these countries the cost of sending an SMS varies from as little as £0.03–£0.18 depending on the payment plan.
Roja
Tutorials Group
Posts: 2692
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 10:30 pm

Post by Roja »

d11wtq wrote:Because there's a tonne of people here that can't receive MMS messages so you wouldn;'t be certain they were going to get the message. You need a (relatively) fancy phone to be able to read these. On top of that, it's not a culture we have here and thus, nobody would bother to read the message... when I said we're all SMS crazy I meant it :) SMS is extremely heavily used in the UK. I'd guess that the service providers make more £££ from SMS than they do from actual phone calls.
Thats interesting. Here in the US, text-messaging is done via SMS, and virtually all phones sold today support it. The email gateways have been around at least 6 years, as they existed when I started work at Airtouch Cellular (later to become part of Verizon).

The oddity to me is that in the UK email/text is done via MMS.. Sounds like a good racket. :)
User avatar
Chris Corbyn
Breakbeat Nuttzer
Posts: 13098
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:57 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by Chris Corbyn »

Email/text isn't done by MMS. Email is done by MMS. Text is done by SMS.
Post Reply