Sending Text Messages Via Email

We've all seen the TV commercial where the mom is questioning everybody regarding their cell phone usage, and cutely they all respond with text messaging slang. Even grandma is in on the action. Now, I will admit that the first time I saw said commercial, I cracked a small smile. Sadly having to watch TV without TIVO has allowed me multiple opportunities to watch it again and again. Of course it has since lost its charm, but the point I'm trying to make here is that text messaging is mainstream.

I can't say that I've always been a fan of text messaging though. I thought that it took way too long to type out any significant message using your standard cell phone keypad. Not to mention the fact that you'd have to wait for the person you just texted to go through the same painful typing to reply. For the longest time I would just call somebody who had texted me.

That's changed obviously. I find myself communicating more and more with texts, and if you're reading this, you most likely are as well. I will say though, that I stumbled upon an easier way of sending text messages.

That easier way to send text messages is to send them via e-mail. All you have to do is know your friends wireless provider, and their cell phone number. Simply put their cell phone # followed by the proper @ provider e-mail address (which I've listed at the end of this article).

For example, its 4:59 and I want to meet up with my friend after work. I open my e-mail client and put in the "To: ____" field the following, 5551239999@vtext.com. Where 555-123-9999 is their cell phone number, and they have Verizon as their carrier. They receive my e-mail as a text message on their phone.

Now, before you get all crazy and start sending out huge text messages to all your friends via e-mail, remember that if your friend doesn't have text messaging on their plan they will be charged for each text they received. So, while you won't be charged for sending the text, they will be charged by their cell carrier for receiving it. Just keep that in mind.

Along the same lines, I've found that message length shouldn't be over 150 characters. Otherwise the message gets split up into multiple messages.

I personally use this for alerting me to happenings on Ebay and a few choice network monitoring programs. In the e-mail field, I just put my text message e-mail address. I now receive a text message instead of just an e-mail. Quite helpful, seeing as that I always have my phone on me.

Alltel phone#@message.alltel.com
Cingular phone#@mobile.mycingular.com
Nextel phone#@messaging.nextel.com
Sprint phone#@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-mobile phone#@tmomail.net
Verizon phone#@vtext.com