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Send SMS officially in Leopard's iChat

by Mike Schramm Jun 28th 2007 at 9:00AM

Reader CrazyRower sends word of something small, but cool coming to iChat in Leopard. According to screenshots from an account named after Apple's favorite designer, sending a message to an SMS number is now builtin to the iChat File menu.

As we've reported before, this is hardly a new feature-- you can do it with your iChat (or any other AIM enabled program; I did it on Adium) right now. All you have to do is go up to File, then New Chat, and instead of the AIM account name, just type "+1" and then any SMS enabled number. And whoever you message can even reply from the phone, and their reply will appear right back in your chat window.

But it is cool that it will be built right in to iChat's menu. You'll be able to send driving directions to your non-iPhone (or just bother your girlfriend with text messages while chatting online at work) that much easier.

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Reader CrazyRower sends word of something small, but cool coming to iChat in Leopard. According to screenshots from an account named after...
 

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Jeff

#12 I and my co-workers have been getting that SMS error in iChat lately as well: "The person is not currently online." Is there a fix to this issue?

Also, has anyone tried SMS Widget? http://keakaj.com/sms.htm

August 09 2007 at 11:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
cgsprite

anyone no how to get this working over in the uk? I could relly put this feature to good use.

June 29 2007 at 4:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Seán Sloane

It's definitely +1 only. I've just tried sending myself an sms and it didn't work... :(

June 29 2007 at 3:35 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ricktugman

This has been a feature in IChat for sometime. I use it all the time and it only works with North American numbers! There is no way to SMS a European number!

June 28 2007 at 10:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Staggie

Just ignore that post. Oops.
Should read more closely.

June 28 2007 at 3:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Staggie

MfS: Since the capability is described for iChat in Leopard, 10.4.10 would not have the feature. You can try the method mentioned in 7 & 10 to see if it works, but the menu item isn't available in 10.4.

June 28 2007 at 3:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
codeman38

Also worth noting is that this doesn't even appear to work with all mobile providers even in the US. I have had no luck whatsoever getting messages to send to a Virgin Mobile USA phone through this method.

June 28 2007 at 2:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike Schramm

MfS, I'm not sure what's happening. Unfortunately, I'm at work (curse you Windows!) so I can't troubleshoot myself but here's more information if you need it.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030625235057445

Good luck-- at least in Leopard it should all go much smoother.

June 28 2007 at 2:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MfS

This isn't working for me on an Intel Mac mini on 10.4.10 in iChat. I go to iChat-->File-->New Chat with Person...(or New Chat)-->then I type in, exactly: +1XXXXXXXXXX...and all I get is a "This person is currently not online" message. (Am in the U.S.)

That's bull, I use the CallWave widget all the time to send SMS messages to my wife's phone, which is exactly like mine, all the time. I didn't know about this iChat feature which is always open on my Mac, and I'd prefer to use it instead of firing up Dashboard all the time.

What am I doing wrong?

June 28 2007 at 1:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
rbg

#7 and #10 are correct.. not leo specific.

June 28 2007 at 1:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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