Hello,  

I have more of a tech question and was wondering if anyone here can help.  

I am physically disabled and always set-up my appointments via email on my computer utilizing adaptive equipment. I have a phone just so I have a number to give out but I can't use it unless I get a lot of help from others who don't know/understand about my lifestyle. I understand many ladies prefer to communicate via texting. Does anyone on here know how I can initially reach out to ladies through text via email or some app on my computer? I'm not super technically savvy so please keep any suggestions you may have simple for my pea brain.  

Thank you for reading and any help you can give. Please reply here or in my DMs.  

MVPness

END OF MESSAGE

Google Voice won't do what he's asking.  

 
I don't know about now but back in the day you could do exactly that - send an email to [email protected], for example, and have a conversation that way - email on one end and text on the other. I don't know if all carriers supported that but I know AT&T did. I don't think most people nowadays know that and I forget how I discovered it.  

 
Even if that does stiill work it would only be with actually carrier accounts and not apps like Google Voice.

If you have an Apple and iPhone, it’s fairly simple and it’s all tied to your iPhone phone number. I assume you probably don’t though. If you have an Android and a PC, Google Messages for Web works as well. Now, if you have a PC and an iPhone, maybe a messaging service like Google Voice or Skype.

I work all day on my desktop/laptop.

I can see texts and also reply to them directly from my keyboard without picking up my phone.  

(This is using a windows computer)  

The app is called "Phone Link" for Windows

For Android Devices:

Open the Phone Link app on your Windows PC. If not installed, download it from the Microsoft Store.

On your Android device, download the Link to Windows app from the Google Play Store (preinstalled on select Samsung and HONOR devices).

Ensure both your PC and Android device are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Sign in to both apps using the same Microsoft account.

On your PC, select Android and follow the on-screen instructions to display a QR code.

Open the Link to Windows app on your phone and scan the QR code displayed on your PC.

Grant the necessary permissions on your Android device to enable features like notifications, calls, and messages.

This is excellent advice. Thank you very much. Will try for my next appt.

Plus you'd have to know the provider's carrier to initially reach out.

You can still do it iirc as long as you know the carrier and providers phone isn't a virtual number.But therein lies the problem. You need you know the exact carrier and it can't be a virtual number.  

There used to be some free SMS gateway sites where you could send an SMS thru online web form (unidirectional) but I think most have closed since spam and bots are rampant.

Voip.ms (https://voip.ms) will let you sign up for a phone number and have any text messages that are sent to it forwarded to an email address of your choice.

Unfortunately it won't work in the opposite direction -- in order to reply to text messages you'll need to log into their website and use the website to send the text messages.

If you have an android phone, open your chrome browser and type messages.google.com. Have your phone handy the first time because you will need to scan the QR code. Then you can just leave that window open on your computer and use it to send and receive texts. I hate texting on a phone keyboeard so I do all of my texting that I can from the computer.  Also, is your disability does not affect your speach then you can use your phone to do voice to text is you cannot navigate the buttons or see the keys.  
I know apple has a similar situation but I am a google girl. Maybe an Apple girl can walk you through the steps to set up the texting from the computer if that is what you have.

Also, Google voice was mentioned. I also have a window open on my computer for my google voice app. So I am able to text from my computer with my regular number and my google number.

I love Google girls!

WhatsApp can be installed on a PC or a Mac and you use it with your mobile’s phone number.  Downside is the recipient also has to use WhatsApp.  

Someone else mentioned Google Voice. GV can send text messages from its web site and nothing special is required of the recipient.