Emergency text messaging provides the ability to send and receive partial text-based messages and text messages that were prematurely ended. When a sender of a text message is not able to complete the message, the recipient of the partial/prematurely concluded message is provided information such that the recipient can ascertain that an exceptional condition exists. A text message can be sent on a character-by-character basis, a text message can be sent when a lack of activity is detected for a predetermined amount of time, when a character entry is consecutively repeated a predetermined amount of times or for a predetermined amount of time, or any appropriate combination thereof. The recipient of the text message has the ability to adjust parameters on the device, activate sensors on the device, and/or trigger the transmission of information from the device.