 | Writing and sending text messages on your iPhone is easy. With the iPhone's intelligent virtual keyboard and the big, bright, high-resolution screen, sending a text message is a cinch. |
First, know that both sender and receiver need SMS-enabled mobile phones. (SMS is short for a protocol called Short Message Service.) Your iPhone qualifies, as does almost any mobile phone made in the past four or five years. If you send SMS messages to folks with a phone that doesn't support SMS, they will never get your message nor will they know you even sent a message.
Tap the Text (SMS) icon on the Home screen to launch the Text application, and then tap the little pencil and paper icon in the top-right corner of the screen to start a new text message.
At this point, the To field is active and awaiting your input. You can do one of three things at this point:
- If the recipient isn't in your Contacts list, type his or her cell phone number.
- If the recipient is in your Contacts list, type the first few letters of the name. A list of matching contacts appears. Scroll through it if necessary and tap the name of the contact. (The more letters you type, the shorter the list becomes.)
- Tap the blue plus icon on the right side of the To field to select a name from your contact list.
There's a fourth option if you want to compose the message first and address it later. Tap the text entry field, which is just above the keyboard and to the left of the Send button, and type your message. When you've finished typing, you'll need to tap the To field and use one of the preceding techniques to address your message.
When you have finished addressing and composing, tap the Send button to send your message on its merry way. And that's all there is to it.
Here are a couple of text-sending tricks to keep in mind:
- To add someone to whom you've sent an SMS text message to your Contacts list, tap the name or phone number in the Text Messages list and then tap the Add to Contacts button.
- To send an SMS text message to someone in your Favorites or Recents list, tap the Phone icon on the Home screen, and then tap Favorites or Recents, respectively. Tap the blue > icon to the right of a name or number, and then tap Text Message at the bottom of the Info screen.
|
