How To Send Free Multimedia SMS Text Messages From Email

By Olin Coles

Wireless carriers continue to raise the price for sending text messages from your cellular phone, even though Short Message Service (SMS) has been around for twenty years and creates very little load on their infrastructure. Network carriers such as AT&T charge $.20 per text message or $.30 per multimedia message unless you add their optional $20/month unlimited messaging service, which may not fit into everyone’s budget. International texting creates additional charges, which could also be avoided. This guide offers an alternative, and shows you how to send simple text and multimedia picture messages through any email account.

There are three simple steps to this process:

1. Discover the recipient’s phone carrier network.
2. Create an email address using their phone number and carrier.
3. Send the text or picture/video multimedia message!

Step 1: Discover Carrier Network

There are several easy ways to easily discover a contact’s phone carrier network. The easiest method is to simply ask who they receive cellular service from, since most regions have only a few carrier network options. Another method is by searching online, using websites such as phonewhois.com or similar to trace the recipient’s telephone number back to the carrier. The most popular wireless carriers are: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile.

Step 2: Create E-mail Address

Once you’ve discovered the recipient’s phone carrier network, you’ll need to create a SMS-compatible email address. You create this email address by combining the contact’s ten-digit cell phone number with the carrier network domain. For example, the phone number 123-456-7890 on Verizon’s network would become: [email protected]

The table below gives examples of the SMS domains for several of the most popular cellular network carriers:

NOTE: A large comprehensive list of wireless carrier SMS domains is available on the next page.

Step 3: Send SMS via Email

Using the SMS-friendly email address you created in the previous step (our example was [email protected]), you can send 160-character text messages to multiple recipients. This is a great way to avoid costly service fees, or to send a short composed message to several contacts at once. Additionally, this method could be useful for businesses wanting to inform contacts who opt-in of their special promotions.

While sending an email may not cost you anything, we urge good judgment because text messages may not be free for the recipient.