I'm not sure how the website "20somethingfinance.com" ended up being a good resource for this, but that's where I found the most information when I started doing my research. Just to be safe, I'm going to share their same info here just in case that website disappears.
Want to use email to send a text message to your cell phone? Just send an email message to your ten digit phone number + @ + your provider's SMS/MMS gateway domain name. For example, the Verizon Wireless domain for this is vtext.com. If you're a Verizon Wireless customer, and your mobile phone number is 3125551212, you would send email to 3125551212@vtext.com to send a text message to your mobile phone.
Here's a list of domains for various mobile providers in the US:
Google Fi (Project Fi): [1234567890]@msg.fi.google.com (SMS & MMS)
U.S. Cellular: [1234567890]@email.uscc.net (SMS), [1234567890]@mms.uscc.net (MMS)
Ting: [1234567890]@message.ting.com
Consumer Cellular: [1234567890]@mailmymobile.net
C-Spire: [1234567890]@cspire1.com
Page Plus: [1234567890]@vtext.com
A significant limitation is that you have to know which mobile provider hosts a given cell phone number; easy to know for yourself but perhaps not always easily known for others. There isn't an address that works for all cell phone providers. Also, if you're looking to initiate an SMS message via email to a Google Voice number, there's really not an easy way to do that. (Here's a very complicated and limited way.)
Keep in mind that if you (your platform, application, whatever) need to send lots of SMS notifications, this email-to-SMS gateway solution doesn't scale up to that. Mobile providers don't allow significant volume through these gateways and it's easy to get blocked. Verizon makes this clear by stating: "The Vtext.com domain is not intended to be used for large volumes of commercial messages or emergency messages. Due to the inherent limitations of internet email, Verizon provides no assurance regarding the timeliness or receipt of messages sent via this service."
And don't think of trying to send email spam to these SMS and MMS gateways. That's prohibited under US law. People don't talk much about the FCC Wireless Domains list much nowadays, but it's still there and it still applies.
I'm not sure how the website "20somethingfinance.com" ended up being a good resource for this, but that's where I found the most information when I started doing my research. Just to be safe, I'm going to share their same info here just in case that website disappears.
Want to use email to send a text message to your cell phone? Just send an email message to your ten digit phone number + @ + your provider's SMS/MMS gateway domain name. For example, the Verizon Wireless domain for this is vtext.com. If you're a Verizon Wireless customer, and your mobile phone number is 3125551212, you would send email to 3125551212@vtext.com to send a text message to your mobile phone.
Here's a list of domains for various mobile providers in the US:
Keep in mind that if you (your platform, application, whatever) need to send lots of SMS notifications, this email-to-SMS gateway solution doesn't scale up to that. Mobile providers don't allow significant volume through these gateways and it's easy to get blocked. Verizon makes this clear by stating: "The Vtext.com domain is not intended to be used for large volumes of commercial messages or emergency messages. Due to the inherent limitations of internet email, Verizon provides no assurance regarding the timeliness or receipt of messages sent via this service."
And don't think of trying to send email spam to these SMS and MMS gateways. That's prohibited under US law. People don't talk much about the FCC Wireless Domains list much nowadays, but it's still there and it still applies.
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