Many cellular carriers assign email addresses to cellular phone numbers and support SMS or text messaging by email. You don't need to install special add-ins in Outlook to send text messages, but the recipient will need text messaging enabled on their cellular plan (most carriers enable it by default) and have a phone capable of receiving text messages (most new phones are text-capable).
To use, compose a short email message using less than 160 total characters in Outlook (or any email client) and address it to the cellular number at the carrier's email domain. Remember to remove your signature from the message before sending. Note that some carriers will break apart larger messages into 160 character messages, others will deliver only the first 160 characters.
The phones only support plain text messages but the carriers strip multipart HTML, so you don't need to remember to switch to plain text format.
Email sent to cell phones is billed to the subscriber as a text message.
See Tools below for add-ins that can send SMS to phone numbers.
US Cellphones
The major US cellular carriers use the 10_digit_number@cell.carrier_domain.com format for SMS to text capable cell phones, with a limit of 160 characters in the subject and message body (total).
| Carrier | Send Email to phonenumber@.... |
|---|---|
| Alltel | @message.alltel.com |
| AT&T | @txt.att.net |
| Nextel | @messaging.nextel.com |
| Sprint | @messaging.sprintpcs.com |
| SunCom | @tms.suncom.com |
| T-mobile | @tmomail.net |
| VoiceStream | @voicestream.net |
| Verizon | @vtext.com (text only) |
| Verizon | @mypixmessages.com |
| Verizon | @vzwpix.com (pictures and videos) |
Verizon users can register an alias at vtext.com to give out instead of their phone number. Both alias@vtext.com and phone_number@vtext.com will be valid addresses for the phone.
If you don't know the carrier, enter the number in 123-456-7890 format at Reverse phone number lookup.
Web Based Interfaces
If you know the phone number and carrier, you may be able to send SMS from a web page.
Verizon https://www.vtext.com
SMS Utilities and Services
Tools
Appointment Reminder is an Outlook Addin that allows you to schedule sms appointment reminders direct from Outlook Calendar. | |
Send and receive text messages instantly from your email account with the Textmagic secure Email to SMS service. | |
Enables any version of Outlook to send SMS messages to mobile phone numbers listed in Outlook contacts and generate SMS appointment reminders automatically. Can also handle SMS replies back to your Inbox. Product consists of an Outlook add-in plus a service to generate the SMS messages. Does not trigger Outlook security prompts. A Lotus Notes version, NotesSMS, is also available. | |
Red Oxygen Office SMS add-in allows you to send text messages from Microsoft Outlook 2013. Messages are sent from Outlook just like emails but are delivered to phones as text messages. Replies are delivered to your Outlook Inbox as emails (or to your mobile device). Office SMS can scan your Outlook calendar and automatically send appointment reminders and notifications to your cell phone as text messages. Recurring reminders are fully supported. |
More Information
For a list of Outlook and Exchange Server SMS tools to forward reminders to your cellular phone, see
Jonah Langer says
Twilio offers a lookup service as well. I have worked for Kaiser Permanente which used it, as well as appointmentreminders.com . You can create an account with them (Twilio) and utilize some of their tools for free or very cheap.
David Payne says
A hacker has inserted his cell phone number to receive Text message to reset my email account, How can I change the cell phone back back to mine?
Diane Poremsky says
You need to edit your Security Contact settings at https://account.microsoft.com/security/ -
Jim says
The mms for Verizon (vzwpix.com) doesn't work.
If you google the problem some people say it works sporadically .
This really bugged me because I'm on my pc all day and it's quicker/easier to email than hunt down my phone to send a text message.
Then I happened to remember the old verizon server address from many many (too many) years ago and tried it. It still works!
[10 digit number]@mypixmessages.com
works for both text and pictures although I've only tried sending pics as attachment and not just pasting them into the email.
Hope this helps others too
Alma says
is there anyway we can block for people to reply? I'd like to just send text reminders without people replying back. Do you know if it will reply to all?
Diane Poremsky says
I'm not aware of a way to prevent replies - if the messages are sent to a group, they would be able to reply to all. You'd need to send to individual people or use the BCC field.
corns says
If you receive an email or instant message from someone you don't know, what's the best thing to do?
Diane Poremsky says
Ignore or delete it. If they send attachments, do not open them. if they send links to attachments, do not click. If you receive an email that says you need to reset a password, type the url to the site in the browser and check it out (if its legit, the site should make you change the password). You can drag the message to the junk mail folder and view the message as plain text - this makes it easy to see the actual URLs.
Todd says
Hi Diane, until today, I've been successfully receiving/replying to SMS in Outlook 2010 (via hosted MS Exchange Service). I've got android phone Galaxy Note 5, with ATT mobile service. Don't know how this got set up, but it just worked. (No third party OMS.) I cleared passwords and cache on my computer yesterday. I'm still receiving SMS, but when I reply in Outlook 2010 it asks me to set up an OMS account. Any solution?
Diane Poremsky says
Some exchange servers have sms capability. I'd check with the exchange admin to see if you need to do something to log in to it.
Todd says
Thank you. Tried that. Host said what I was describing was not something they offered. (They have an SMS notification option, but said it sends an sms to your phone when you get an email - the opposite of what I had.) Tried ATT, and got the same response. But it WAS working seamlessly, with no third party. ::Sigh:: Never should have cleared the cache.
Jazz says
I havent been able to text using outlook
Diane Poremsky says
if you want to use SMS, you need to subscribe to an SMS service - outlook can only send email to the phone's address, which is in the-number@carrier format.
what happens when you send a short email to a cell phone at the-number@carrier address? (You need to know their cell provider.)
KEVIN ALESSANDRI says
how do I send a text to a phone my friend has and i dont know his carrier.
Diane Poremsky says
You'll need to either ask your friend who his carrier is or try a lookup on the phone number at a reverse look up site. Many will include the service that "owns" the 3 digit city code. However, with number portability, this isn't always correct.
Chad Compton says
is there a way to send without needing to know the carrier of the receiver?
Diane Poremsky says
You'd need a subscription to a sms service.
scott says
is there any way to increase the amount of characters on the text
Diane Poremsky says
No, sorry. The text length is a limitation of SMS messaging. some companies will send the excess text in additional text messages but others drop it.
Bulk SMS Marketing Services says
I agree with the thing that SMS counts to 160 characters...as I know and have my knowledge if message goes beyond 160 characters it will count not as one but in two messages....how carriers cut message and make it under 160?
Diane Poremsky says
it's coded into the sms server. After 16 characters, they cut it and make a new message.
Stephanie says
Whenever my coworker tries to respond to the text he received from me in outlook he gets an error saying it could not send. Instead of my email address showing up as the sender it shows some weird number i have never heard of. He does have an android phone but nobody else in my building has a problem responding to my texts from outlook (iPhone and Android users), just him. I assume it is just a setting issue but we cannot figure out why he cannot reply.
muffitt says
yes I have spent some time talking to employees at 02 and on their chat line but they dont know and are saying its not available. However, i Know its possible because i tested it out from https://www.cbfsms.com/
Diane Poremsky says
That site looks like it sends actual SMS messages, not email using SMS gateway. See https://www.emailtextmessages.com/ for possible domain names.
muffitt says
How do i find out the domains then for the uk market as we only work with uk customers
Diane Poremsky says
Check the service provider's websites for the domains they use.
Tom Sheahan says
Red Oxygen has the ability to text ALL Uk carriers with a UK reply path.
James Pius says
can anyone help me with Gmail Send Text Messages To Multiple Recipients Software User License?
Kindly contact me [removed personal information]
Diane Poremsky says
You'll need to contact the developer of the application for assistance, sorry. I cant find a website for the application and have no idea if it's still being supported.
R Saraf says
I am using a tablet with windows 8.1 and it has 3G. I am able to use People (windows 8.1 app) to send SMS, but cannot open outlook 2013 to send sms. Is there a better way?
Diane Poremsky says
Outlook doesn't support sms directly. It can send sms by email and can use sms servers, but at this time, it can't send sums directly.
R Saraf says
Does microsoft outlook sms add-in work with outlook 2013?
Diane Poremsky says
I don't have a GSM phone so I never tested it. Microsoft tends to check for versions and not install if the version is not what they expect. You can avoid this check by extracting the files using WinZip or similar and running the msn directly. It may require 32bit outlook.
muffitt says
can you do this to UK mobiles
Diane Poremsky says
Probably, but I've never tried it and I don't know any of the domains.
Kenneth L. Wolfgram says
Using Outlook 2010, I can generate and send an SMS through GVOMS but if I try to reply to a received SMS, it is sent as an email - not an SMS. How do I reply to an SMS with an SMS through GVOMS?!
joseoh says
I'm trying to send a email from my msn account to a cell as a text, but it comes up empty. What do i do?
Diane Poremsky says
Make sure you use plain text, not HTML and definitely not RTF.
ravi shah says
i want to create a rule and alert for sms like e-mail
means i connect gsm modem with outlook using ozkei NG sms gateway...now i just want that when i receive sms as reply its just go into the inbox of e-mail ...so its just work like email rules and alert
Diane Poremsky says
Rules only work on items delivered to the Inbox. if the SMS is dropped in the inbox it should work. If not, you could use an ItemAdd event, which can work against any folder but something will need to sync the SMS to outlook before itemadd can kick in.
Earline says
Can you send an xlsx attachment via SMS
Diane Poremsky says
No, SMS is text only. You'd need to use the multimedia service (MMS).
gale says
Great info that works! Thanks a bunch!
Arturo says
Diane,
Great article!
I sent a txt message to myself to test it & it worked!
What about being able to do this to send messages to phones in Canada?
Thanks,
Arturo
len raphael says
are most of the sms services for outlook 2010 and exchange 2010 have the same problem that when someone gets your outlook generated sms text, there is no caller id , but worse is that when peple respond to your outlook text, you cant do a lookup on their number automatically to find out who sent you a text.
Diane Poremsky says
Yes, that is a major problem with the services. If you use the email address of the phone and send it as an email, it should show your name as the sender - but you need to know the carrier, which isn't always possible.