Testing SMS code without access to a texting plan

Question

Is there any way to test SMS messaging without having a texting plan?

There isn't any way to setup the equivalent of a mock email server for the purposes of testing an SMS service is there? Are there any other ways to accomplish the task? Perhaps setting up something like a GrandCentral account that can receive text messages?

I am looking to test SMS messages to multiple accounts without having to find multiple people with texting plans and coordinating the effort.

Answer 1

Google now has the answer for which I seek. With the roll-out of their new Google Voice (previously GrandCentral) they added the ability to received text messages to the phone number (which currently is free). While technically somewhat of a text plan, one could theoretically sign up for a few accounts and be able to test multiple phone numbers.

http://www.google.com/voice/

Update (Nov 2010): Perhaps an even better way to do this now is to use either Tropo (tropo.com) or Twilio (twilio.com). Both of them offer low cost SMS messaging and Tropo is free for development. I've been using Tropo and it's very quick and easy to setup and write and code for.

Answer 2

It would depend on the method of how you're sending out the SMS messages. If you're using the email method (<ten digit number>@<cell provider's doman>) you can fake it with a regular email account that can be purged automatically. If you're using an actual SMS publisher your best bet would be to refactor the design so that you can test that your function gets called the expected number of times, but doesn't actually send the messages. Then when you want to test the production-ready code you actually round up a group of people and try it out.

Having a provider that doesn't charge for incoming text messaging (like US Cellular) comes in handy for situations like that.

Answer 3

SMS text can be done under a few different protocols. I've had success with SMPP using the Easy SMPP .NET library and this java-based SMPP server simulator. It saved me a bunch of overpriced service charges.