How to Send SMS Messages on a Blackberry

Your Blackberry comes loaded with everything required to handle all your needs in the instant messaging or SMS (Short Messaging Service) department. Incoming messages will appear on your "Message List" just like emails, with the same instant notification. SMS is extremely fast and popular, but take that first "S" seriously, because messages longer than 160 characters are likely to be truncated or broken into multiple messages by SMS.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Blackberry

Send SMS Messages on a Blackberry

1. Use the track-wheel to select "Address Book" off of the Blackberry Home screen and pick a contact with a cellphone number. Cellphone numbers take the place of email addresses under SMS.

2. Highlight the contact, press the track-wheel and choose "SMS" when the "Context" menu comes up.

3. Type a short message to your contact and use the track-wheel to click "Send." You have just sent an SMS, or text message.

4. Collect cellphone numbers from your contacts and enter them into your Address Book to increase the usefulness of your Blackberry as an SMS device.

5. Visit Netlingo to get schooled on all the little abbreviations, acronyms and emoticons that SMS and text-message aficionados use to communicate within the constraints of the 160-character limit (see Resources below). You may resist such shorthand constructions yourself, but since others use them, you'll want to at least familiarize yourself with them.

Use SMS With PIN-to-PIN Between Blackberry Owners

6. Discover your PIN number by typing "mypin" and a space on the subject line of a new email message under "Compose Messages." Your PIN number will appear on your screen as if by magic, and you will be one step closer to a special SMS service available only to Blackberry owners.

7. Collect PINs from each of your friends and colleagues who owns a Blackberry, then add the PIN numbers to your Address Book.

8. Send a PIN-to-PIN message by selecting the contact from your Address Book, letting the PIN number come up and proceeding just as you would to send an email message.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't become so reliant on SMS that you try to use it when a longer message is required. Remember, the length limit on SMS messages is roughly equivalent to three lines of type on a page: 160 characters, not 160 words.
• You may be unable to use some SMS functions, including PIN-to-PIN messaging, if you are using a corporate-owned Blackberry, since the lack of a paper trail for such messaging is seen by some companies as a danger or potential corporate liability.