SEND FREE SMS FROM GMAIL ACCOUNT TO MOBILE PHONE NUMBERS.

Gmail has made it possible for you to now send free SMS right from your Gmail account to local mobile numbers in Nigeria. Yes, I?m writing this in reference to Nigeria because that remains my country. This stuff has been on for a while but some people I sent to still kept asking me how I did it. So I thought I should share it on this blog for other people that might not know it too.

To get started, you have  to enable this SMS option in your Gmail account.

Follow the following steps to enable it:

Login to your Gmail account, click on Settings, and go to the Labs tab

Scroll down until you see ?Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat? and select Enable

You should also enable the ?SMS in Chat gadget? and then Save Changes

You can send free texts to your friends in the Nigeria and many countries around the world

HOW TO SEND THE SMS IN GMAIL

After you have successfully activated this feature, log into your Gmail account. In the Send SMS box above the Chat feature, enter the phone number you want to send a SMS to.

Now a dialog box will show up, enter Contact name of the SMS recipient. Then, click Save.

Type your message in the chat window and hit Enter.

Note that this option is currently available on few network providers in Nigeria, they are:

MTN
Glo
Airtel
Starcomms
Visafone

If your contact replies, the text message response will appear as a reply in Chat. These conversations are stored in your Chat history just like regular chats.

Here is a warning exactly as written by Gmail:

NOTE: Sending and receiving a message from Gmail to any phone is free. When replying with an SMS from phone to Gmail, you will be charged a regular SMS rate by your mobile provider.