Send SMS Text Messages to Cell Phones from iChat

The title says it all, you can send and receive SMS text messages through iChat by following these simple instructions. If you are so inclined, there is even a simple bash script allowing you to interface with iChat through the command line for such purposes. This is a great tip found in the MacOSXHints archives, apparenty the ability to send SMS messages through the AIM protocol has been around a while (note the date on their article is from 2003!).

• Hit Command-Shift-N to bring up a New Chat window
• Enter in the phone number you wish to text message in the following format: +18005551212
• +1 is the country code for the USA, so if you want to try other countries, change it accordingly. +44 for the UK, +49 for Germany, etc
• Note: I have only tested this in the USA, so no guarantees with other countries
• Type your message and click send
• Now you can talk with any mobile phone through IM and Text Messaging

As you can see from the below screenshots, you will get often a message confirming that the instant message was sent to a mobile carrier. Because it is AIM that allows for this, technically this tip should work for Adium and other AIM supporting protocols as well, but I haven’t tested them.

You can also send IM’s through iChat via the command line with this simple bash script (found in the comments on MacOSXHints, credit to their user ‘below’):
#!/bin/sh
# I got my wisdom from http://rsvp.atsites.de/stories/storyReader$194
# Apparently, iChat wants it that way
osascript< tell application "iChat"
repeat with a in (every account where id is "AIM:$1")
send "$2" to a
end repeat
end tell
DONE


Simply paste that into a text file with nano, save it as sendsms.sh, chmod +x sendsms.sh, and type ./sendsms +18185551212 "hello"

Note that the above bash script still requires iChat to be open, and still sends the SMS through iChat, allowing the conversation to continue in a typical iChat window.

Source: MacOSXHints