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678

answers:

5

Is it possible for a mobile browser to send an SMS using the device's built-in capabilities? By that I mean, NOT using some online SMS services provider but actually making the mobile device send the SMS (same you would do using J2ME).

A: 

I think a GSM modem is capable of acting as a SMS Gateway but you have to have the software installed on the modem to do this. You might also look into the Carrier Gateway Emails to SMS as another option. Example is AT&T [email protected]

There are a couple of free services popping up these days like ZeepMobile that you might also want to look into.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

Phill Pafford
I want to let the user send an SMS from his WAP browser in order to register to some service. He would get a confirmation SMS back.
Zamel
ZeepMobile uses a HTTP post as a API to their SMS gateway. You could have the browser do the post and then the user would get a SMS text message. They do have ads at the bottom of the SMS message but it's the only service that offers a Short Code to send SMS messages on for free.
Phill Pafford
A: 

No as a mobile browser is specifically built to render markup (html) documents. Therefore, if you wanted to send SMS via a mobile browser it would call a web server page and send from the server NOT the mobile browser.

Mobile OS and their applications have quite a lot of limitations. The closest you will see is the ability to hyperlink a phone # in a mobile browser to send a message but it will be handled via their SMS app not the browser.

Tom Walls
You mean that the SMS will be sent by the device and not by the browser? That's OK, exactly what I need.
Zamel
+2  A: 

There are lots of different mobile browsers out there, so I doubt that this is standardised. Safari/iPhone supports SMS URIs, which strikes me as a sensible approach to the problem and one that might be more widely supported than just the iPhone.

Based on the link (above) I found, and a comment from Zamel, I suspect this would work:

<a href="sms:+447787000000">SMS</a>

Although with a real phone number, and possibly escaping the + sign as %2B.

David Dorward
A small mistake, it should look like that:<a href="sms:+447787000000">SMS</a>
Zamel
A: 

It's a good thing that is not possible. It would be quite a security risk IMHO. I imagine spammers would be all over it.

Sander Marechal
A: 

Its not possible . You can call device functionality from browser . That is the way to go about it . Webkit lets you do it