Free SMS On IPhone 3G Via AOL IM Client

Glenn Fleishman writes "Jeff Carlson has discovered that you can bypass the 20 cent per message or $5 to $20 per month fees for SMS (text messaging) with the iPhone 3G and AT&T by using AOL's downloadable instant message client for iPhone 2.0, which is free. Just like the full-blown AOL IM system, you can add buddies that are the phone numbers of cell phones you want to send SMS to, and you establish a two-way conduit. The recipient still pays for SMS (if they have a fee) on their end, but if it's another iPhone user, you could coordinate with them via SMS to use instant messaging instead."

Comments

Re:Ummm...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've worked with the iPhone SDK and 3rd-party apps cannot push to the UI unless they are selected and running.

So yes, email FTW. Because it's pushed to the UI. Unlike 3rd-party app messages.

Next.

Re:Well now its gone.

[rizzle]

It's not going anywhere as far as I know. I'm one of the developers of AIM for iPhone, and frankly we're glad that it's been discovered and slashdotted :)

Sending IMs to a mobile number is a feature of the AIM service, and there's no reason that we shouldn't have it for the iPhone. In fact, our data API (which is open sourced here) doesn't distinguish between mobile numbers and buddies.

Re:Well now its gone.

[nuggetman]

Firstly... has the AIM team just thrown in the towel on AIM for Mac?

Second... I've found the iPhone client to be horribly glitchy when you close the app without signing off. If messages are sent to me while it's closed, I just get blank messages upon reopening the client.