Send SMS Text Messages Via Email

As if text messages weren’t convenient enough; did you know you could send them through your favorite email client?

I’m sure we’ve all been working on our computers when a text message comes in, and have to pause what we’re doing to reply using that little dinky keyboard/numpad on the phone. Well now, if you know the other party’s wireless carrier and phone number, you can type up a text message on your computer and have it sent straight to their phone.

Advantages

• Using your standard, full-size keyboard to type out your message is faster and easier than doing it on your phone.
• You can keep a permanent record of the text message in the Sent folder of your email account.
• It doesn’t cost a thing to send. As mentioned in my post about the cost of text messages, this can really help keep your number to text messages down each month.

Disadvantages

• The text messages are a little sloppy. As you can see in the example above, the text message you receive looks more like an email, which is to be expected.
• Your recipient has to reply manually to your text message. Because the message wasn’t sent through your normal phone number, your friend will have to start a new text message thread in order to reply. For example, on the iPhone you just need to tap the text field and start typing in order to reply. In this case, however, I’d have to go back to my list of contacts and start a new text message.

So, as with any technology, there’s a time and a place for sending text messages via email. Try it for yourself and see how it works with your phone/carrier. Who knows, maybe this will work well on some phones that handle text messages differently than the iPhone.

Regardless, here’s a list of carriers and the email addresses you can use to send your SMS text messages via email:

Alltel

(10-digit phone number)@message.alltel.com
Example: 1234567890@message.alltel.com

AT&T (formerly Cingular)

(10-digit phone number)@txt.att.net
(10-digit phone number)@mms.att.net (MMS)
(10-digit phone number)@cingularme.com
Example: 1234567890@txt.att.net

Nextel (now Sprint Nextel)

(10-digit phone number)@messaging.nextel.com
Example: 1234567890@messaging.nextel.com

Sprint PCS (now Sprint Nextel)

(10-digit phone number)@messaging.sprintpcs.com
(10-digit phone number)@pm.sprint.com (MMS)
Example: 1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile

(10-digit phone number)@tmomail.net
Example: 1234567890@tmomail.net

US Cellular

(10-digit phone number)@email.uscc.net (SMS)
(10-digit phone number)@mms.uscc.net (MMS)
Example: 1234567890@email.uscc.net

Verizon

(10-digit phone number)@vtext.com
(10-digit phone number)@vzwpix.com (MMS)
Example: 1234567890@vtext.com

Virgin Mobile USA

(10-digit phone number)@vmobl.com
Example: 1234567890@vmobl.com

Tagged as: cellular, email, iphone, Mac, sms, Windows