The most common way to get SMS from your friends is a direct SMS reply. The messages you send from your ipipi.com account appear as if they were sent from another phone. To send you a reply your friends can simply:

1. Press reply
2. Type a message
3. Press send

In other words, your friends will reply to you in the same way they would to regular SMS messages. All SMS you receive from your friends will go to your ipipi.com inbox.

Click here to see a short tutorial on how the Direct SMS Reply works.

Why doesn't direct SMS reply always work?

1. Each SMS message sent from your ipipi.com account carries return path information that tells the phone how to send the reply back to you. In some cases, mobile phone operators will remove or alter this information and your friends will not be able to press reply to your messages. Easy solution - ask your friends to reply to you by sending to any of our SMS gateways.
2. The "reply-to-window" is only open for 7 days. Make sure you send a message every 7 days so your friends can reply back to you as often as they want. Alternatively, consider registering their numbers.
3. Not all wireless providers/plans allow international SMS messaging - your friend may need to talk to their wireless provider to enable this.
4. You may not have a positive credit balance in your ipipi.com account.
5. Your SMS Settings of your ipipi.com account needs to allow incoming SMS messages.

How can ipipi make sending international SMS with your friends easier?

Easy! There is one simple way to overcome all of these problems. Just ask your friends to send their SMS messages to you by using one of our many local gateway numbers.

Read here to learn more.