How to Send Email to Mobile Phones From a Networked PC

Emailing a text to a cell phone takes only minutes.

Emails can be sent from any computer connected to the Internet to any mobile phone. Every cell phone has an email address, and emails sent to the phone from a computer will be sent as a text message using SMS. This is beneficial to the sender because there is no cost, but the person receiving the text will be charged normal messaging fees by their cell phone provider. Sending an email from a computer to a mobile phone is not difficult, provided you know the domain name associated with the recipient's cell phone.

Instructions

1. Determine the domain name that is used by the recipient's cell phone provider for texting purposes. The domain names for popular cell phone providers are: txt.att.com for AT&T; tmomail.net for T-Mobile; messaging.sprintpcs.com for Sprint; vtext.com for Verizon; messaging.nextel.com for Nextel; and message.alltel.com for Alltel. If you are sending a text to a recipient that uses a different cell phone provider, check the company's website or contact the provider for the correct domain name to use.

2. Open your email account. This can be an email client such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird, or a web-based email service, such as Yahoo Mail or Google Gmail.

3. Compose an email to send to the recipient's cell phone. Be aware that text messages to mobile phones are generally restricted to 160 characters. If your text is longer the recipient will only receive the first 160 characters. If your message is longer than 160 characters, split it into shorter messages and send them separately so that the recipient will be sure to receive the entire message.

4. Send the text message to the cell phone. In the "To" field, enter the recipient's cell phone address in the format "tendigitphonenumber@domainname" where "tendigitphonenumber" is the recipient's cell phone number and "domainname" is the domain name of the recipient's cell phone provider -- which was discussed in step one. If the recipient's phone number is 555-964-7852 and Verizon is their cell phone provider, enter [e-mail] in the "To" field of the email message. Send the email message and the recipient will receive it on their cell phone in the form of a text message.

References

• Verizon: Verizon Wireless Support
• AT&T: What is the Email Address for Text Messaging (SMS), Multimedia Messaging (MMS)
• T-Mobile: Text Messaging FAQs