Enabling a user of a device, such as a wired or wireless device, that is associated with a telephone number to communicate text messages with another user of another device that is not associated with a telephone number (or the telephone number is unknown to the sender). Although the other user's telephone number is not known or does not exist, the other user is associated with a user identifier for a user community that is assigned a Common Short Code (CSC). The text message includes a source telephone number (sender/user's device telephone number) and a destination number (the CSC for the other user/recipient's user community). The content of the text message includes a user identifier, where the identifier indicates the particular other user within the user community. A server employs the CSC to determine the user community and the identifier to determine the particular user in the determined community that is the intended recipient of the text message.