Being able to send a text by email is a convenient option for business accounts. More than anything, it means you can centralize your text marketing and communication methods without using a phone for texting. Simply put, texting via email is just that: composing an email in the normal way to send to a mobile phone number rather than a different email address. There are 3 ways to send a text from an email account. These are: Mobile service provider’s SMS gateway
Third-party service
Web browser extension
We’ll explain the methods below, so you can decide which option is best for you.
The first option is to use a service provider’s SMS gateway. Unlike the others, it doesn’t require any third-party apps or extensions, meaning it’s the simplest method.
An SMS gateway is simply an interface that allows a computer and phone to communicate via text messages. It converts an email into an SMS message or vice versa.
Most service providers have their own gateway, which you include as part of the phone number’s “email address”. Some examples are:
SMS stands for short message service, the standard form for text messages. MMS is a multimedia messaging service, which includes images, videos and rich text.
Typically, when you send a text from an email account, it’s converted into an SMS. But, if your email is more than 160 characters and/or contains Unicode, it’ll become an MMS. Unless you’re really careful about only sending short, plain text emails, you’ll likely be sending MMS messages.
SMS stands for short message service, the standard form for text messages. MMS is a multimedia messaging service, which includes images, videos and rich text.
Typically, when you send a text from an email account, it’s converted into an SMS. But, if your email is more than 160 characters and/or contains Unicode, it’ll become an MMS. Unless you’re really careful about only sending short, plain text emails, you’ll likely be sending MMS messages.
We’ll use Google for this example because it’s the easiest, although most email providers will follow a similar method.
Numerous third-party services allow you to send text from an email account. Considering it’s popular for businesses, these services aim to provide streamlined communication methods.
Some of the major players include TextMagic, Message Media, MessageBird, Twilio, and more.
For the purposes of this method, we’ll use TextMagic because it’s pretty simple.
Each service will have a slightly different method, but they’ll all follow something similar to this:
The final method is to download a browser extension. It offers the same kind of support as a third-party service but with much easier access.
There are plenty available, but for the purposes of this demonstration, we’ll use the Chrome extension Send Your Email to SMS.
If you want a convenient (and free) option for sending SMS messages directly from your computer, try Textr’s Send SMS Online tool.
Along with being completely free, it can be anonymous and means you don’t have to mess around with texting to email services. You add a phone number, type your message, and hit send. It’s really that simple.
You can also get local numbers across 48 US states and 12 Canadian provinces with Textr, allowing you to respond to customers’ SMS and MMS messages, and by phone all in one app.
It’s also available on different devices and allows you to send SMS messages right from your browser without any third-party services. As such, it’s simple and convenient.
Hopefully, this article has given you some options for how to send a text from an email account. None of them are particularly difficult, but the best one will depend on your budget and tech skills.
For example, while an SMS gateway is a free option, it requires customer knowledge. A third-party service, however, costs money but takes care of this for you.
If you only need to send the occasional text from your computer, Textr’s service is easily the best option. Other than that, try out some texting to email services to see which meets your needs.
