To send an email as a text message, the old way was to email the phone number at its carrier’s address, such as 5551234567@vtext.com. That only works if you know the carrier and the carrier still runs the address. AT&T shut its gateway on 17 June 2025, Verizon’s closes by 31 March 2027, and T-Mobile has published no shutdown notice while administrators report failures. Today, to text anyone, use your phone’s own messaging app on a computer or a paid SMS service; to get your own alerts as texts, use an email-to-text service for your own phones, such as Email2Phone.
How Does the Carrier Address Method Work?
You email the phone’s 10-digit number at the carrier’s domain, and the carrier turns the email into a text. It works only where the carrier still runs that address, so check the table below first.
- Write a new email in any mail program.
- In To, put the 10-digit number at the carrier’s domain, for example
5551234567@vtext.com. - Keep it short and in plain text, with no attachments.
- Send a test and check that it arrives on the phone.
Send the test from the device that sends the real alerts. A server or alarm panel can relay mail through a different route from your own inbox, and one test that arrives proves only that the path worked once.
Here is where four gateways stood on 28 October 2026.
| Carrier | Address | Status | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AT&T | number@txt.att.net |
Shut down on 17 June 2025 | AT&T Support notice | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Verizon | number@vtext.com |
Closes by 31 March 2027; some senders lose access earlier | Verizon Support notice | 28 Oct 2026 |
| T-Mobile | number@tmomail.net |
No published notice; administrators have reported failures since at least 2023 | Our T-Mobile status page | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Google Fi | number@msg.fi.google.com |
Still documented by Google | Google Fi Help | 28 Oct 2026 |
AT&T shut its gateway down on 17 June 2025, and AT&T numbers can no longer receive texts by email. Verizon’s closes by 31 March 2027, and Verizon says some senders may lose access sooner. T-Mobile has published no shutdown notice for tmomail.net, so test it before you rely on it. Google Fi still documents its address for numbers that use Messages by Google as the default texting app.
Many smaller carriers have their own domains. Our list of every carrier’s email-to-text address and status covers them.
Why Do Carrier Gateways Fail, Even Where They Still Run?
A gateway that still runs has these limits.
- You have to know the carrier. A number that moves to another carrier keeps its digits but not its gateway domain, and the old address no longer reaches it.
- Messages can vanish without a bounce. The carrier can accept the email and never deliver a text, and the sender may see no error.
- Carriers filter this traffic as spam. Verizon says email-to-text messages may already fail because of automatic spam filtering, or because the recipient switched incoming email-to-text off.
- Long emails are cut off. A single text holds 160 characters, so the end of a long alert is lost. T-Mobile also tells tmomail.net senders to use plain text, because it doesn’t support HTML.
How Do You Text Someone From Your Computer?
Use your phone’s own messaging app on the computer. It sends the text through your phone, from your own number, and it is usually what people searching for this want.
- Messages on a Mac sends SMS to any phone, but only with an iPhone that has Text Message Forwarding turned on for that Mac. Both devices must be signed in to the same Apple Account.
- Google Messages for web shows your Android phone’s Google Messages on a computer once you pair the two. It sends texts through the phone, so your carrier’s normal charges apply.
- Microsoft Phone Link connects a Windows PC to an Android phone from a supported maker or an iPhone, and you can read and reply to texts from the PC. Microsoft sets different requirements for each kind of phone. An iPhone needs iOS 16 or later and a PC with Bluetooth Low Energy.
None of these is an email-to-text gateway. The computer works through your phone, and the phone has to stay connected.
How Do You Text Customers or a List of People?
Use a paid SMS service. T-Mobile, for one, says business texts belong on approved routes, such as 10DLC numbers, short codes or toll-free numbers, which come with business fees and compliance steps. A carrier gateway is the wrong tool here too, since carriers filter this traffic as spam, and AT&T and Verizon have shut or are shutting theirs. Email2Phone isn’t built for this either, because it texts only the phones on your own account.
How Do You Get Alerts as Texts on Your Own Phones?
Send the alert email to an Email2Phone address, and Email2Phone sends it to the phones on your account as a text, a call, or both. Email2Phone sends only to phone numbers you add to your account, not to a friend, a customer or any number you type.
It fits anything that sends email, such as a monitoring tool, a NAS, a UPS, a temperature sensor, an alarm panel, a script, or a mail rule that forwards important messages. See the monitoring tools and devices people connect to Email2Phone.
- Sign up and get your Email2Phone address, such as
yourname@email2phone.net. - Add your phone number and set it to text, call or both.
- Point the device, or a mail rule, at that address.
- Optionally, send only critical alerts to the phone. Untick Default on that number, then add a filter that sends to it, for example Subject contains CRITICAL. A Default number gets everything no filter excludes; a non-default number gets only what a filter sends it. Warnings and recovery notices then don’t reach that phone, and only the alert that needs a person does.
- Send a test from the device.
A text is one per email, in plain text, with no attachments or images, and cut to the subject plus the start of the body, 160 characters in all. It is one-way, and it can’t be acknowledged. Texts come from Email2Phone’s own registered US number, and you register nothing. How Email2Phone texts work covers the rest.
A call reads the email aloud, and it is the better choice when an alert has to wake someone. On a phone with voicemail switched off, if nobody accepts the message by pressing 5, 7 or 8, Email2Phone calls back at 5, 15, 30, 60 and 60 minutes. A burst of 80 alert emails is one call, where it would be 80 texts. To have the alert ring the phone instead of texting it, set that number to call, or to both. Calls go to any phone, mobile, landline or VoIP, in any country, and they come from +1 612-844-0002.
Plans start at $10 a month for 40 credits. A text to a US or Canadian number uses one credit, and so does a minute of call to a US or Canadian number; other countries can cost more.
Try it free for 30 days: up to three emails a day as calls, texts or both, no card.
Which Method Fits Which Job?
| Job | What to use | Cost | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texting a friend or family member | Messages on a Mac, Google Messages for web or Microsoft Phone Link | Your phone plan’s normal texting | The computer works only while it is connected to your phone |
| Texting customers or a list | A paid SMS service | Per message, set by the service | Carrier rules for business texting, such as 10DLC |
| Alerts from a server or device to your own phone | Email2Phone set to text | From $10 a month for 40 credits; 1 credit per text to the US or Canada | One text per email, and a text can’t be acknowledged |
| An alert that must wake someone at night | Email2Phone set to call | 1 credit per call minute to the US or Canada | Callbacks run only on a phone with voicemail switched off |
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I send an email as a text message?
Address the email to the phone’s 10-digit number at its carrier’s gateway domain, if the carrier still runs one. AT&T no longer does, Verizon’s gateway closes by 31 March 2027, and administrators have reported failures with T-Mobile’s, so send a test first. For alerts to your own phones, an email-to-text service such as Email2Phone does the job without a carrier gateway.
Can you send a text from Gmail?
Gmail’s help pages describe no way to send a text; they cover sending email. You can address a Gmail message to a carrier gateway such as 5551234567@vtext.com, and the carrier’s status decides if it arrives. To text someone from a computer, use your phone’s messaging app on it instead.
What is the email address for a phone number?
It is the 10-digit number at the carrier’s gateway domain, such as 5551234567@vtext.com for Verizon. It works only on carriers that still run a gateway, and AT&T no longer does. Our list of carrier gateway addresses and their status covers each one.
Is email to text free?
Carrier gateways cost nothing to send through, but AT&T’s is gone, Verizon’s is closing and T-Mobile’s has had reported failures. A paid SMS service charges per message, and Email2Phone starts at $10 a month for 40 credits, with one credit per text to a US or Canadian number. Email2Phone’s free trial runs 30 days, with up to three emails a day as calls, texts or both, and no card.
Why didn’t my email-to-text message arrive?
The carrier may no longer run the gateway, may have filtered the message as spam, or the number may have moved to another carrier. Verizon says email-to-text messages can fail because of automatic spam filtering or because the recipient switched them off. Send a short plain-text test from the device that sends your alerts, and if it doesn’t arrive, move the alert to a service built for it.
Sources
- Say goodbye to email-to-text and text-to-email, AT&T Support, accessed 28 October 2026. AT&T’s email-to-text service shut down on 17 June 2025; nobody can send texts to an AT&T number by email.
- Notice to Customers: Shutdown of email to Vtext and VZWPix, Verizon Support, accessed 28 October 2026. Shutdown to be completed by 31 March 2027; some senders may lose access earlier; messages may already fail because of automatic SMS spam filtering or because the recipient disabled incoming email-to-text.
- Does T-Mobile Email to Text (tmomail.net) Still Work?, Email2Phone, accessed 28 October 2026. No T-Mobile notice found; administrator reports of failures from November 2023 to July 2026, with sources listed on that page.
- Email to Text @TMOmail.net not working, Universal Devices Forum, November 2023, accessed 28 October 2026. User report of email to tmomail.net producing no text. A user report, not a T-Mobile statement.
- Messaging and Email troubleshooting, T-Mobile Support, accessed 28 October 2026. Tells tmomail.net senders to use plain text, as HTML is not supported.
- Send and receive emails over text message, Google Fi Wireless Help, accessed 28 October 2026. Email-to-text address is the 10-digit Fi number at msg.fi.google.com, with Messages by Google as the default app.
- Set up Messages on Mac, Apple Support, accessed 28 October 2026. SMS on a Mac needs an iPhone with Text Message Forwarding turned on for that Mac, signed in to the same Apple Account.
- Check your messages on your computer or Android tablet, Google Messages Help, accessed 28 October 2026. Google Messages for web pairs with the phone and sends SMS through the phone’s connection; carrier fees apply.
- Phone Link requirements and setup, Microsoft Support, accessed 28 October 2026. Connects a Windows PC to an Android phone (select makers) or an iPhone; iPhone needs iOS 16 or later and a PC with Bluetooth Low Energy; read and reply to texts on the PC.
- Send and receive text messages from your PC, Microsoft Support, accessed 28 October 2026. Sending a new text from Phone Link’s Messages tab.
- Send or unsend Gmail messages, Gmail Help, accessed 28 October 2026. Describes composing and sending email; no texting feature.
- Consumer versus Non-Consumer Text Messaging, T-Mobile Support, accessed 28 October 2026. Business (non-consumer) texts belong on sanctioned routes: short codes, toll-free messaging and, since fall 2020, 10DLC, with business fees and compliance steps.