How to Send an SMS to Get a Location

By Candice Coleman

Text messages can help you find directions, maps and other information.
i David Roth/Stockbyte/Getty Images

Whether you're driving and you want to know your location, or you're eager to know the address of a local business or directions to get to it, text messages, or SMS, can help you get an answer. For some of these services, you may have to pay additional fees on top of standard text-messaging fees, so it is important to talk with your cell-phone provider before signing up for services or phone applications.

Open "New message" on your phone to create a text message. If you are searching for directions, enter "From" and then type in your current location, which may be as specific as a street address and city, or just a city and state. Enter "to" and then indicate the end destination.

Search for businesses, instead of directions, by entering the business name, as well as the city and state of its location, in the body of the text message. If you do not have a specific business name, but are looking for a particular type of business in a given area, like pizza parlors, enter "pizza" and then the city and state in which you want to find businesses related to pizza.

Find a map of your current location by entering "map" into the text-message body, and then the street you are currently on, as well as the city and state.

Click "Send" and enter "466453" to send your search query through Google SMS. Click "Send" again and wait for your results. When you are notified of text messages, open them to see the directions. You may receive a link as a result, such as when searching for a map. To open the link, make sure that Web browsing is enabled on your phone, and click on the link to open it.

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