Here is a handy trick that a lot of people do not know. You can send a text message using your favorite email client to anyone as long as you know their phone number and their cell phone provider. This can be pretty handy these days as more and more people rely on texting to stay in touch. But, if you somehow do not have a cost-effective testing plan, you can still get in on the fun using email. And, they can reply to you as well. I have included some of the popular carrier formats below for you to use.
How To Send a Text From Email
Sending a text using email is pretty simple if you know the phone number and carrier of the recipient you want to contact. In order to send to them, you will need to enter the full phone number including the area code at the beginning. Following the area code you will need to put the “@” sign and the domain of the carrier you are sending to.
I use AT&T, so I will use that as an example. If you want to send to someone with a phone number of 555-555-5555, you would put 5555555555@txt.att.net in the to field of your email client. They will receive the text message about as fast as if you were texting. And, the neat part is they can reply to you and you will receive the response in your email inbox.
Below are some of the common carriers you can use this trick with if you live in the United States. If you want to send to someone not on this list, it is pretty easy to find them online. Or, you can ask your friend to send a message to your email and you will then have their address to text to in the reply window.
AT&T – xxxxxxxxxx@txt.att.net
Verizon – xxxxxxxxxx@vtext.com
Sprint – xxxxxxxxxx@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile – xxxxxxxxxx@tmomail.net
Get an Email from A Text Message
As stated earlier, you can also get a text from someone in your email client. This keeps you in on the fun even if you can’t text from your phone. Its pretty easy for the sender. All they have to do is:
- Start a new text message as though they were going to send to a new person
- Instead of a phone number in the “TO” field, they will type your email address.
- Type the message as though they were sending to anyone else
- Click on the send button
The only real difference is they are entering an email address in the TO field rather than a phone number. There is no real difference for the user. All the magic happens on the network once it leaves the phone or the email client. You can even add your friends email addresses as contacts to your phone to make it easier, or add their phone’s email address to your contacts in your favorite email client.