Free SMS Text Messaging on iPhone with AIM

Jul 17, 2008 - 16 Comments

This post references software that no longer exists, notably the AIM (AOL Instant Messager) service, and cellular plans that are no longer relevant. Nonetheless we are keeping this post up for posterity sake. Long live AIM!

Free SMS with AIM

The iPhone 3G is awesome, we all know that, but the rate plans are not necessarily awesome for everyone, and some of the cellular plans may be cost prohibitive for the amount of text messages that you get. Wouldn’t it be great if you could send text messages (SMS) for free with iPhone?

Well guess what, you can get free SMS text messaging on your iPhone by using the AIM protocol. Yes, AOL Instant Messenger!

First you’ll need some kind of AIM client for your iPhone, so you can either download the AIM client for iPhone from the App Store, or even use Meebo.

Here’s the most important part, add a new buddy to your list, but use the full phone number with a + sign in front of it, like so: +18085551212.

The plus sign is crucial because thats what tells the AIM protocol that it is an SMS message.

Now you can SMS any phone on any carrier from your iPhone, without using any SMS messages or without having an SMS message plan!

If you’re confused, check out the screenshot which shows adding a cell phone number in iChat.

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Related articles:

Posted by: William Pearson in iPhone, Tips & Tricks

16 Comments

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  1. Freebees are always the best!

  2. […] Free SMS Text Messages with AIM – we covered this in the past showing how to get free sms text messages on the iPhone but it’s certainly not just limited to the iPhone. Basically just send an instant message to […]

  3. Jürgen Habermas says:

    free sms ha-ha

  4. Chris says:

    Has anyone managed to get this working in the UK?

  5. Marlene says:

    Good new, I like to read SMS, because sometimes I cant say some things in words, but I can write them, so everyday I write a lot of messages and spend a lot of money on them, so your article will help me to spend some money. Thanks a lot.

  6. SuperMac says:

    OS X Daily is not daily anymore :(

    _….,_ _,…._
    _.-` _,..,_’. .’_,..,_ `-._
    _,-`/ o \\ ‘. .’ / o \\`-,_
    ‘-.\\___/.-` `-.\\___/.-‘

  7. Jacob says:

    Has this website stopped or something ?

  8. Javi says:

    This is old,but something that not many people know about. You basically reply as if you were having an aim conversation, yet its free and no text messaging cost.

    Also is cool because it keeps your text conversation in a thread format just like Iphone Texting, unlike my old phone which would cause confusion having 4 different conversations at once, yet all the texts come in randomly.

  9. kikikikiokik says:

    u guys have amazing stuff well g2g bye

  10. deadlyicon says:

    oooh someone should write an Adium plugin that added all the phone numbers in your address book as a buddy for this!

  11. Adam says:

    I don’t usually point out old things, but soooo old. The AIM to SMS feature has been around for years and years

  12. Byron says:

    how do u recieve replies?

  13. Byron says:

    how do u recieve replies?

  14. Brian says:

    Great, but can you receive text messages as well through aim without being logged in or not being the originator of the message.

  15. Robert S. says:

    Does this work outside the US?

  16. Elias says:

    Great tip! This worked almost with all carriers in my area except for friends who have “Boost Mobile”. They don’t seem to get any of the AIM texting.

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