By David
If you are brand new to the world of cell phones, you may have only recently become aware of the idea of text messaging. This technology allows a person to send a short message to someone they know instead of calling, allowing them to communicate often times more efficiently and considerably more discreetly. While learning to send a text message isn’t hard, it is helpful to have someone first outline the basics for you.
Open you messaging service
In order to send a text message, you will need to first activate your phone and head to its main screen. Once there, you will likely see several different icons to choose from all for different services your phone offers. Most have an icon that makes their function fairly obvious and the messaging system is no exception. Look for the icon that looks like an open envelope and select it by scrolling to it with your directional keys and hitting select, or by simply touching it on a touch screen device. If you find that this opens a dialog asking about email information, you have accidently entered the email application instead of the texting application, an easy mistake to make as they both have similar icons. In this case, exit back to the main menu and select the other icon.
Select recipients
Next you will want to select the intended recipient of your message so that your phone knows who to contact when you send a text. This is done through the thin text bar at the top of your screen inside the texting application and can be filled out in a few different ways. You can enter someone’s phone number here in order to text their phone or on some phones you can enter an email address to send your text to their email account. Alternatively if you already have their contact information saved on your phone, you can simply start typing their name and your phone will display a list of options from your contacts matching what you have entered so far. You can select the appropriate entry from this list in the same fashion you selected the text messaging service earlier or merely finish typing the name so that only one option remains available.
Compose message
Your final task before you send a text message is to actually compose the message. This will be done in the large text box below the box where you entered the recipient’s information. Typing the message will happen in one of two ways depending on the type of phone. Older phones typically use T9 to help you write your message. Each key is typically used to enter 3 letters and its corresponding number, allowing you to cycle through to the correct one and showing options for possible words as you go, much like in the recipient information box. Alternatively, newer phones will have either a physical or digital keyboard that you can use to enter your message.
Once you are done typing, select “submit” to send a text.
Leave a Reply