Given how popular texting and emailing have become, it’s surprising that more people don’t combine the two by sending email to cell phones in the form of text messages. What’s even more surprising is how incredibly easy it is to do this; in fact, it’s as easy as sending a normal email.
How could this possibly be? Well, cell phones on most major carriers have email addresses associated with them, and these email addresses operate like any other in that they can receive email.
So how do you know to what email address to send your message? In almost all cases, you’ll be sending an email to the cell phone’s ten-digit number @ the email domain of the carrier. The email domain varies from carrier to carrier, but here are the domains of the four main service providers:
AT&T: txt.att.net
Sprint: messaging.sprintpcs.com
Verizon: vtext.com
TMobile: tmomail.net
So, let’s say you want to email a text message to your friend’s cell phone, whose service provider is Verizon, and whose number is 987-654-3210. To send this person an email, you would merely need to type out a message in your email program and send it to 9876543210 at vtext.com. That’s all there is to it!
In short, the cell phone number is the “username” (the characters to the left of the “@” symbol), and the domain (to the right of the “@” symbol) is just like any other domain we’re familiar with, like “google.com” or “yahoo.com.”
If you’re one of the three people left on earth without a cell phone, you can still text! Or, if you want to exploit this ability for dubious purposes, you could covertly text people at work without anyone noticing. It looks bad to type on your phone at work, but you’ll hardly draw attention to yourself by writing an email, perhaps the most common of all office tasks.
The one thing to keep in mind is that some service providers impose a character limit on text messages (commonly in the 140 to 160 range), so you have to keep your email text messages pithy, which can be a bit of a challenge given how easy it is to crank out words on a keyboard. Still, better a short message than no message at all!
About the Author: The Institute for Social Internet Public Policy (ISIPP) is dedicated to providing analysis, information and consulting on industry issues relating to public policies and processes regarding spam, email, email deliverability, and the Internet. ISIPP’s widely-acclaimed SuretyMail Email Accreditation service helps business email senders ensure that their email gets delivered to the inbox instead of the junk folder. ISIPP also publishes, among other sites, The Internet Patrol which is a leading source for Internet-related news.
what about the domains of Indian telecom ?
Hi Siva – Thanks for checking out the article. Unfortunately, I don’t know if this works in India, much less what the specific domains would be. However, it very well could work because it seems like a relatively simple capability that service providers could enable anywhere with cellphones. I wish I could be of more help to you, but I bet a few searches could turn up what you are looking for. Best of luck!
Thanks Evan, Thanks for clearing Siva’s matter..
Interesting in trying this. Am from India I doubt whether it will work here. anyway will give it a shot. thanks mating for sharing 🙂
Hello Mukundan, Evan has cleared about this Issue. Anyways give a try.
Thanks for focusing 🙂