Yes You Can - Send Text Messages from Your Email

Or is that send an email to a cell phone? Well, either way you look at it, here is yet another way for your clients to stalk to you. For the most part, all cell phones with text messaging capability can also send and receive emails - mind you that the messages are limited in length (usually 160 characters - subject and message total) and any charges that are incurred when sending a regular SMS will apply. (SMS stands for Short Message Service aka text message.) If you're like me, you have a plan with unlimited text messages and don't care how many come in or out. And if you're like me, you protect your cell phone number like your SS number and don't have to worry about creepy SMS's (short message stalkers).

Why would you (really, I) want to do this? Well, let me try to make a long story short. I have an iPhone, which for the most part I love. But the two things I don't love about it are: typing on it (couldn't possibly suck anymore - and do not believe the evangelists who constantly squawk "you'll get used to it") and that it doesn't cut/copy paste (yes, I know there's an app for it, but the reviews have not been high enough for me to dare). So, I had made a reservation on OpenTable and wanted to forward some of the information from the email confirmation to my fellow diners. It was a Saturday and I didn't want to send them all emails as I knew that several of them don't check email on weekends but they certainly have their cell phones attached to their heads.

To determine the cell phone's email address you need to know (unfortunately) who the service provider is. All addresses start with the 10 digit number of the phone followed by the carrier domain. Example, for AT&T, the cell phone email addy would be: 4075551212@mms.att.net. To determine your address, send a text message FROM your celly to your email (yes, you can, try it). To determine someone else's carrier and domain you can input the cell number at Mobile Carrier Look Up and easily find it. If your firm or family uses the same service for everyone, then it's easy enough to know all the addresses once you figure out the first one.

Here are some popular carriers and their domains:

Carrier......Send Email to phonenumber@
Alltel.......@message.alltel.com
AT&T.........@mms.att.net
Nextel.......@messaging.nextel.com
Sprint.......@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-mobile.....@tmomail.net
Verizon......@vtext.com (text only) or @vzwpix.com (pictures and videos).

Comments

[Hugh MacInnes]

Another list of "SMS Gateways" (email addresses for cell phone companies) which includes Canadian companies, eh, is http://www.mutube.com/projects/open-email-to-sms/gateway-list/

[Jim Strichartz]

So I use an Iphone too, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to send a text message from my phone to an email account. The reason for this is that I cannot figure out how to enter the @ symbol into the address. Do you have a tip for that?

As far as sending text messages from my computer, I find 3jam SuperText Desktop works more efficiently. All you need to know is the mobile number. No need to keep track of carriers or carrier email addresses.