This is a long message. But in short, it is about how you could send photos from your cellphone via simple text messaging (“SMS” or short message service) to other cellphone recipients without using any app. The advantages of this method: (1) It’s free for you and your recipients as only SMS is used. (2) Anyone can send and receive the images without having to sign up to any app first.
So let’s look into the details…
SMS normally comes included in your mobile service package – that is: you can send and receive SMS messages at no additional cost to you (except roaming or international cost to “out of coverage area recipients”).
However, be cautioned about sending photos from your cellphone – You think you are using the free SMS that comes with your mobile service package; in reality you are using a different service called Multimedia Messaging Service, or “MMS”.
By definition and nature, SMS refers to text-based messages only, while MMS covers also various media types including picture (image), video and audio, etc.
Most mobile service providers give you free SMS and charge you heavily on MMS, and without even letting you know the difference up front (when you receive your first monthly bill of your new mobile service and see the total sum charged to the MMS messages sent over the month, it could be a little too late).
Experienced cellphone users will choose to send images (or other media) via APP. An app could be free or cost you a small fee. However, you can only send to a phone number that is also subscribed to the same app as you would use.
If the other party (the recipient) does not have the same app you are going to use, and you don’t want to incur any MMS cost, here’s a solution for you…
To send images via text messaging to any cellphone numbers for free (other than cost on roaming or international service), please follow the steps below…
PART ONE – Online storage apps on your cellphone
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Step 1
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Install an online storage service app of your choice to your cellphone:
There are many online storage services available but I have just had installed the following two on my mobile devices only. So I’ll only talk about these in this message.
SkyDrive: Search “SkyDrive” and look for provider “Microsoft Corporation”
Google Drive: Search “Google Drive” and look for provider “Google Inc.”
My comments on these two services: They both work well for me but one thing I have observed that you might wish to consider:
With SkyDrive: I can sign out (log out) the access on my cellphone; but with Google Drive, I cannot sign out the access – this could be a huge risk to your stored files in case your phone is lost or stolen. (There might be a way to sign out Google Drive but I just don’t know how.)
Step 2
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Do some practice with your app. Learn (or make sure you know) how to upload images to the storage, how to select and obtain a sharing link of any specified image (or images) that you want to share.
With both the apps I mentioned above, you can either select and share an entire folder, or to share just one particular file in a folder – be very cautious and make sure you only select what you want to share with others.
Part One is now done. The services are available to you on your cellphone – i.e., store and access to files wherever you want. The function of Part Two next is optional but is the topic of this message, which is about sending photos from the camera on your cellphone via text messaging to anyone through a direct cellphone number, *without the use of any app*.
PART TWO – Sending images via text messaging to any cellphone number without using any app
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Step 1
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Take photo using your cellphone camera as you normally would.
Share the picture from your cellphone: Share it by selecting an online storage service app. Follow steps of the app to store the photo to the online storage. After proper steps, your photo is now stored to your online storage account.
Step 2
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This step is about sharing your image(s) from your online storage account, to anyone through a direct cellphone number, *without the use of any app*.
Open your online storage app on your cellphone, select the image you want to share to others; share it by obtaining a LINK (define a share permission of you choice where applicable); select a method through which you want the image shared – for the purposes of this article, let’s select “text messaging” as the method.
After the above steps, your text messaging program should open and filled with the LINK in the body of the message. From here, you can enter the cellphone number(s) of others to whom you want to share the photo with. You can send the message to any cellphone number you like, without the need to use any “message deliver app” or the need to ensure the recipients are also using the same app you are using.
And because you are actually sending a text link in a text message, you will not incur any cost for sending media (images, vedios, songs, etc) if this feature is not already included in your wireless service package.
CONCLUSION
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Sharing images from your cellphone this way has the following advantages:
1. You are using text messaging service (or “SMS”) – it is included in most wireless service packages at no extra cost.
2. You can send the image (a text LINK) to *ANY* cellphone number around the world – you don’t need to use any app at all, and the recipients do not need to install any app either. (No more guessing or uncertainty.)
3. You can send any type of media, including images, video or audio files, etc.
4. You can avoid paying heavy cost on sending media files via messaging services (for many wireless service packages it could be 50 cents or higher per image).