Texting to the US
 

I am getting ready to go on vacation later this summer and just had a quick technical question. I need to stay in touch with my daughter back home in an inexpensive manner. Does anyone know of a cheap international texting program available? I will be e-mailing her however, I would like to have direct, instant communication as well. Please let me know if anyone has any ideas!!

Welcome to FT amelia8833.
I'm sure you'll find a lot of help from these fora. However, to answer your particular query, what country will you be in?
Google Voice could possibly help you, assuming you will have internet access. It has the benefit of being free as well ^
Keep on posting!

Welcome to Flyertalk, amelia8833. There is a Forum dedicated to Travel Technology, therefore I am moving your thread to the Travel Technology Forum.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Welcome to FT. :) Your best bet is to buy a local SIM card and bring along a quad-mode GSM phone.

You can also use www.skype.com. However, that's only for voice. (It works great. I called DL's 800 number to change my reservation from South Africa. :D )

- Pat

You can send text messages from Skype.

The OP said she wants to be able to SMS with "direct, instant" communication.

Skype and Google Voice are good options but not for direct and instant communication. I think the best option is to get a local SIM and text from a cell phone.

Google Voice works extremely well for SMS - including via email. If you configure it to forward an incoming message to your email address (not just a notification, the actual message), you can reply directly with the email and the recipient will receive it as an SMS. There is also a lightweight email-based interface where you can access your address book, etc. and send SMS from there. If you have Internet access this is by far the best option.

I've had reasonably good success getting it to work for non-US SMS destinations also - although this can be a bit hit-and-miss and occasionally messages disappear into a black hole.

If you have a smart phone you should just stick with Google Voice.

best and cheapest http://www.2-waysms.com