Text Messaging With Your Contacts

What Is... Signing In to Chat Sending a Text Message Switching Between Texting, Chat, and Email

Signing In to Chat

Your online chat availability determines whether you can send text messages to your contacts. If you’re signed in to AT&T Mail’s chat feature (that is, online), you can initiate text messaging; if you’re signed out of chat (offline), you can’t.

If you’re signed out of chat, you’ll see a gray circle (Offline symbol) and "Offline" next to your name at the top of the Mail page.

Your status is offline for chat.

Just sign in to get started text messaging.

Tip: For text messaging, it doesn’t matter what your online status is, as long as you’re signed in. You can be available (Available symbol), busy (Busy symbol), or even invisible (Invisible symbol) and still be able to send and receive text messages. See the Chatting With Your Contacts tutorial to learn more about different chat statuses and how to create your own status messages.

 

Here’s How

  1. To sign in to AT&T Mail’s chat feature, click the "Offline" status, and then select another status from the menu.

    Select an online status from the menu.

    Tip: The check mark in the menu indicates the current status.

    Your text messaging friends don’t see your online status, but your online Messenger contacts do.

 

What’s Next

Now that signed in, you can send a text message to one of your contacts,

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Words to Know

  • Offline: not connected to the Internet or any other network.
  • Online: connected to the Internet.
  • Online Status: a setting that lets others know when you are available to chat.
  • Yahoo! Messenger: an application that lets you communicate using your voice, text, or other means with one or more people over the Internet in real time (instantly).