How To Send A Text Message To A Cell Phone Using Email

It seems, anymore, that almost everybody has a cell phone, PDA, iPhone, Blackberry or whatever. And while these devices can have Internet access, texting has become the popular choice of communication among many people.

Now, depending on your plan, it may not be feasible to have texting capabilities, because of costs or you just don't want it.

But, just because you don't have texting capabilities, many people do not realize, you can send a text message to someone cell phone as SMS (Short Message Service) using email.

Just about everybody has an eamil account somewhere. And sending a text message to a cell phone via email is simple and can be done to most major cellular providers.

All you need is the person 10-digit cell phone number and the carrier they use.

For example, if your friends carrier is AT&T, and you know their cell phone number, to send them an SMS text message, you would address the email as:

[email protected] (use full 10 digit cell number with no spaces or plus sign)

3085551212@@txt.att.net

Or if the carrier is Verizon, you would address the email as:

[email protected]

Any email provider can be used (GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail, your ISP or company email). The reason why you can use email, is because, many cell phone providers (especially in the USA) have an email SMS gateway that allows anyone to send an email that will, in turn send a text message.

So, how do you know if a provider has an email gateway. Since carriers change often (merge, shutdown, etc..) your best bet is to do a Google search for the carrier which will likely return the domain suffix to use (such as vtext.com for Verizon), or you can check with the cell carrier's web site (obivously you can also check with the person you want to text for the information).

Below are some of the popular providers for sending text messages:

Alltel     @message.alltel.com
AT&T Â Â Â Â Â Â @txt.att.net
Sprint       @messaging.sprintpcs.com (or @messaging.nextel.com for Nextell)
T-mobile    @tmomail.net
Verizon    @vtext.com

In addition to sending text messages (SMS), some carriers allow sending MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) messages that include multimedia content, such as photos, videos, etc.

To send MMS using email, you will need to use the carrier domain address which may be different than the SMS address. Below are some of the popular carriers (again, do a Google search to fond carriers not listed below):

Alltel
AT&T Â Â Â Â Â Â @mms.att.net
Sprint       @pm.sprint.com
T-mobile    @mms.uscc.net
Verizon    @vzwpix.com

Now that you know how to text someone cell phone using email, their are a couple of things to keep in mind.

• Make sure the message does not exceed 160 charaters, otherwise it may get cut off.

• Just because your email account is free (meaning you are not charged per message), doesn't mean the person you are sending the text message to (receiving) won't be charged per text message. Check with them first, otherwise they may not be your friend anymore.

• Be patient. Some carrier gateways may delay message delivery, so don't use it for emergencies or when an immediate response is expected.

• Use simple text. Don't bother with fancy fonts or formatting.

• Don't spam anybody cell phone. Do so, and you will end up in a world of trouble (it's not worth it).