How do I Send Email to SMS?

Short Message Service is the text messaging system used on cell phones. Sending email to SMS is easy. To complete the task, you'll have to know your recipient's phone number, his or her cell phone carrier and the carrier's email domain, and you'll need access to an email program. Sending email to SMS is a great way for those who are by their computers but away from their phones to communicate with cell phone users.

If you want to send email to SMS, you'll first have to open your email program. You can send email to SMS by accessing the email program that you regularly use to send and receive emails. Next, you'll have to type the recipient's 10-digit cell phone number into the "To" field, like you would do to send email to a regular email address. After the phone number, type the "@" symbol.

Next, you might have to do a little research. Find out what cell phone carrier your recipient is using. After you know what company your recipient is signed up with, you can use that information to determine the carrier's email domain. A quick Internet search can tell you what the carrier's email domain is. This is then added to the "To" field after the "@" symbol.

Next, compose your message. Make sure that the message is the appropriate length. Most text messages are 140 to 160 characters long. To ensure that the recipient receives the text message without delay or interruption, you'll have to keep your message this short. If you make your message longer than 160 characters, you will run the risk of having your message broken apart in several text messages or simply bounced back.

Be sure to turn your signature off. Similarly, make sure your email message doesn't contain any special attributes that the average text message is incapable of handling. You can run into problems if you try to send image-heavy emails or emails that contain HyperText Markup Language (HTML). Remember that text messages are simple, brief messages meant to contain standard characters. Many cell phone carriers strip excess HTML from an email message, but it's a good idea to switch to a plain text email format as a precaution.

Finally, send your message. You should be aware that sending email to SMS might result in extra charges for the recipient. The sending of the email is free for you, but the recipient of the text message will receive the message as if it were a regular text message and will be charged accordingly, if he or she has a cell phone plan that charges for text messages. It might be wise to find out if your recipient has an SMS charge or SMS limit before you start corresponding through this method.