Sending a text message from your Gmail inbox is possible through a feature known as email-to-SMS (email to text message). This allows you to compose an email and have it delivered to someone’s phone as an SMS.

In this article, we’ll explain what email-to-SMS is, why you might use it, and provide a detailed step-by-step guide for sending SMS from Gmail using the carriers’ email-to-SMS gateways.

We’ll also discuss the limitations of this method (like message length and reliability) and introduce some third-party tools (such as Twilio and ClickSend) that can make sending texts via email easier.

Lastly, we’ll cover the benefits and real-world use cases for businesses using email-to-SMS, and help you decide which method is best for your needs.

What Is Email-to-SMS and Why Use It?

Email-to-SMS (sometimes called “email to text”) is a service that converts an email into a text message. Mobile carriers provide special gateway email addresses that route emails to phones via SMS. For example, if someone’s phone number is 123-456-7890 and they use Verizon, you can send an email to [email protected] and Verizon’s system will forward it as a text message to their phone. This essentially treats your email like a text.

People might want to send a text from email for several reasons. Maybe your phone is unavailable but you have internet access, or you find typing on a full keyboard easier for longer messages. It’s also useful if you don’t have a texting plan but do have email, since sending via email can be free for you (though the recipient might still be charged for a text).

Businesses and IT professionals have long used email-to-SMS to send out server alerts, emergency notifications, or reminders directly to phones because it’s quick and doesn’t require any special software. In short, email-to-SMS is a handy workaround that bridges email and text messaging, giving you the convenience of texting from your Gmail account.

How to Send a Text Message from Gmail (Step-by-Step Guide)

Sending an SMS through Gmail is straightforward. You’ll use the recipient’s phone number and their carrier’s email-to-SMS gateway address as the email recipient. Before you start, you must know the person’s mobile carrier (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.), because the gateway address is different for each carrier. Once you have that, follow these steps:

1. Open Gmail and compose a new email: Log in to your Gmail account on your computer or phone and click the Compose button to start a new email.

2. Enter the recipient’s number and gateway address: In the “To” field, type the 10-digit phone number (no country code or dashes) followed by @ and the carrier’s SMS gateway domain. For example, to text a Verizon customer with number 123-456-7890, you’d enter [email protected] as the recipient. Use the SMS gateway for standard texts (up to ~160 characters) or the MMS gateway for longer messages or media. We’ve listed the major U.S. carriers’ gateways below for reference.

   • Verizon: [email protected] (SMS, <160 chars); [email protected] (MMS or longer messages).

   • AT&T: [email protected] (SMS); [email protected] (MMS)

   • T-Mobile: [email protected] (SMS & MMS)

   • Sprint: [email protected] (SMS); [email protected] (MMS)
     (For other carriers or international providers, the format is similar – you can often find the gateway addresses on the carrier’s website or through an online list.)

3. Write your message: Keep it short and simple. The subject line is optional – some carriers prepend it to the text, and others might ignore it. It’s safest to put the core of your message in the email body. (For example, you might leave the subject blank or use it as a brief intro, and put “Hello, just checking in” in the body.)

4. Send the email: Click “Send” as usual. Your email will be converted by the carrier into an SMS. The recipient will receive it as a text from your email address or a special carrier number. If they reply, you’ll get their response in your Gmail inbox as an email.

Illustration: Composing an email to [email protected] in Gmail to send a text message via Verizon’s email-to-SMS gateway. The 10-digit phone number is used in place of an email address.

That’s it! You’ve sent a text from Gmail. Just remember that this method relies on the carrier’s system to forward your email as a text. In many cases it works within minutes, but it’s not as instant as a normal text – slight delays can happen.

Limitations of Sending Texts via Email (Email-to-SMS)

Illustration: Major carriers like AT&T and Verizon have phased out their email-to-text gateways by 2025, citing issues like spam and reliability.

While sending SMS through Gmail is clever, it comes with important limitations:

• You must know the recipient’s carrier: The email-to-SMS address varies by provider. If you send to the wrong carrier’s gateway, the message won’t be delivered. There isn’t a universal gateway for all numbers. (Some third-party browser extensions or services can auto-detect the carrier for you – more on that later – but with the manual method you need to find out the carrier yourself.)

• Message length is limited: Standard SMS via email gateways typically allow about 160 characters per message. If you go over, one of three things might happen: (a) the message gets truncated (cut off); (b) it gets split into multiple texts; or (c) it gets converted to an MMS message (which could fail if the recipient’s plan doesn’t support MMS). As a rule of thumb, keep your message under 160 characters to be safe. No fancy email formatting or emojis will survive the trip – stick to plain text.

• No attachments via SMS gateway: If you need to send images or any non-text content, you have to use the carrier’s MMS gateway address (if they have one). Even then, media might be compressed or not delivered if the recipient’s device or plan can’t handle it. Many smaller or international carriers do not offer an email-to-MMS option.

• Potential delivery issues: Email-to-SMS is not 100% reliable. Sometimes messages can be delayed or lost, especially if the carrier’s gateway is overloaded or if your email looks like spam. There’s typically no confirmation that the text was received, unlike some dedicated SMS services that offer delivery receipts. It’s a best-effort service provided by carriers with no guarantees.

• Recipient charges and reply limitations: The person you text might incur their normal SMS fees (if they pay per text). If they reply, their reply usually comes to your email, but it may appear from a weird-looking sender (like [email protected]). It works for basic back-and-forth, but it’s not as seamless as regular texting. Group texts won’t work well through this method, and mass emailing to many phone numbers is not advised – it may get flagged as spam by carriers.

Important: Several major carriers have recently shut down or restricted their email-to-text gateways. AT&T, for example, discontinued its email-to-SMS service in June 2025, so you can no longer send texts to txt.att.net addresses. Verizon and T-Mobile have also effectively ended or heavily filtered their email gateways around the same time (citing spam and security issues).

This industry trend means the manual Gmail-to-SMS trick may not work for all carriers going forward. Delivery is increasingly unpredictable or blocked on some networks, so while the email-to-SMS method is useful, it’s not a long-term solution for critical or widespread texting needs. Next, we’ll look at alternative tools that fill this gap.

Using Third-Party Tools to Send SMS from Email (Twilio, ClickSend, etc.)

If you need a more reliable or feature-rich way to send text messages from an email or computer, consider third-party services. These tools act as intermediaries – you send an email (or use their app/API), and they deliver it as an SMS via their own systems. Below, we introduce a few popular options, along with their pros, cons, and ease of use.

1. Twilio

Twilio is a well-known cloud communications platform that developers and businesses use to send SMS, WhatsApp, voice calls, and more via APIs. With Twilio, instead of emailing a carrier gateway, you’d typically integrate your application (or use a tool) to call Twilio’s SMS API to send texts directly to any phone number. The upside is you don’t need to know the recipient’s carrier – Twilio handles the delivery through reliable routes. It also provides features like delivery confirmation, two-way messaging, scheduling, and high scale. In fact, modern SMS API services like Twilio are the secure alternative now that carriers are closing email-to-SMS gateways.

Pros: Extremely reliable and scalable; supports global messaging; rich features (logs, replies, MMS, etc.); no need to worry about carrier domains.

Cons: Twilio is a paid service (you pay per text, though rates are low), and using it directly often requires some technical setup or programming. It’s developer-friendly, but a general user might need to use an integration or third-party plugin (for example, using a service like Zapier to connect Gmail to Twilio, or building a small script). Twilio does offer a web console and some email integrations, but it’s best suited if you’re okay doing a bit of configuration. For businesses that send a lot of texts (e.g., marketing messages, verification codes, alerts), Twilio is a gold standard solution. For an individual just occasionally texting from Gmail, it might be overkill due to the setup involved.

2. ClickSend

ClickSend is another service that specializes in easy messaging solutions, including an Email-to-SMS gateway feature. It’s designed so that non-technical users can send SMS directly from their regular email client (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) via ClickSend’s system. You sign up for a ClickSend account, authorize your email address, and then you can simply send an email to [email protected]. ClickSend receives that email and forwards it as an SMS to the number. Replies can be routed back to your email or viewed on their platform.

Pros: Very easy to use once set up – essentially as simple as sending a normal email. No need to know the recipient’s carrier or use different addresses for each carrier; just use ClickSend’s uniform address. It’s great for businesses that want to integrate SMS into their existing workflows without writing code. You can send to multiple recipients, send in bulk, and even set up contact lists or scheduled messages.

Cons: Like any third-party service, it’s not free – you’ll pay per message or buy credits (the costs are usually reasonable, but it’s a consideration). It also requires an internet connection and relies on ClickSend’s platform being up. There’s a bit of setup in creating and configuring your account (e.g., adding allowed sender emails, which is a one-time task). Overall, ClickSend offers a user-friendly, email-centric approach to SMS, making it a strong alternative now that direct carrier gateways are going away.

Other Notable Tools and Services

Aside from Twilio and ClickSend, there are a few other options worth mentioning:

• TextMagic: TextMagic is a service that, similar to ClickSend, lets you send SMS via email after creating an account. You add authorized email addresses in your TextMagic settings, and then you can email [email protected] to deliver texts. It’s a two-way service, so replies from the phone come back to your email. TextMagic is fairly easy to use and requires no coding; you just have to pay for the texts you send. One limitation is that it may not support email-to-SMS in all countries (and costs can add up if you send a lot).

• CloudHQ’s “Send Your Email to SMS” Chrome Extension: This is a Gmail add-on that simplifies the whole process. Once you install this free extension, you can compose an email in Gmail and click a special SMS button to enter a phone number (it even lets you pick from your Google Contacts). The service (run by CloudHQ) figures out the carrier and sends the text for you – you don’t have to remember any gateway addresses. The basic version is free for U.S./Canada numbers, with some limitations on replies (they come from a shared number). This is a convenient option for individuals who want a quick solution inside Gmail’s interface. Just note that for heavy use or international texting, you might need to upgrade to a paid plan on that extension.

• Zapier or IFTTT Integrations: If you’re comfortable with automation tools, you can connect Gmail to various SMS services. For instance, Zapier can watch for a specific email (or any new email) and then trigger an SMS via Twilio, ClickSend, or other SMS APIs. This is more of a tech-savvy solution, but it’s powerful for creating custom workflows (e.g., send a text alert whenever you receive an important email). IFTTT with Google Voice is another clever workaround – for example, scheduling a Google Voice text via an email trigger– though such solutions can be limited in scope.

Each of these tools has its niche. If you just need to occasionally send a text from Gmail, a browser extension or the manual method might suffice (as long as the carrier supports it). If you’re a business needing to send bulk texts or automated alerts, an online service or API-based solution like Twilio, ClickSend, or TextMagic will be more reliable and scalable.

Benefits and Real-World Use Cases for Businesses

Why would a business want to use email-to-SMS or any form of sending texts via email? Here are some common use cases and benefits:

• Customer Support and Updates: Small businesses can quickly reach customers on their phones by sending a message from an email helpdesk or Gmail. For example, a customer service agent might email [email protected] to shoot off a quick order update or support ticket confirmation via text. This ensures the customer sees it immediately as an SMS, which often has a higher open rate than email. Even without knowing the technicalities, teams can use email-to-SMS to enhance communication speed.

• Appointment Reminders: Doctors’ offices, salons, and other appointment-based services often rely on texting reminders. If they don’t have a fancy SMS system, they might use an email calendar system that sends an email-to-text to remind patients or clients of their appointment tomorrow. It’s a low-cost way to reduce no-shows. Similarly, reservation confirmations or schedule notifications can be sent by emailing the customer’s phone gateway.

• IT Alerts and System Monitoring: As mentioned earlier, IT professionals set up servers and network equipment to send critical alerts to phone numbers via email-to-SMS. If a server goes down at 3 AM, an automatic email alert can be forwarded as a text to the on-call engineer’s phone. This is invaluable for catching issues quickly. Even with carriers shutting down direct gateways, businesses are now moving to services like Twilio for the same purpose – the concept (sending alerts from email/scripts to SMS) remains a huge benefit for reliability.

• Emergency Broadcasts and Staff Communications: Schools, offices, or community organizations have used email-to-text to send out emergency closures, safety alerts, or urgent announcements. For example, a school admin could send one email to a list of staff phone-email addresses to notify everyone of a snow day. Many have shifted to dedicated alert systems, but email-to-SMS was a free fallback method. With third-party tools, this can be made more robust while still using familiar email workflows.

• Two-Factor Authentication or Verification (Limited): In some cases, a company might use email-to-SMS to deliver a one-time passcode to a user’s phone if they didn’t have an SMS API. However, given the time-sensitive nature of 2FA codes, this is less common now (it’s more reliable to use an SMS API or an authentication app). Still, it illustrates that whenever you need to get a short message to a phone, bridging email to SMS is a useful trick.

For businesses, the general benefit is convenience and integration. Employees can send or trigger texts from systems they already use (like email clients or email-based software) without needing to pick up a phone. It also centralizes communication – keeping a copy of messages in email form. Now that direct carrier gateways are disappearing, businesses are investing in replacements (like an email-to-SMS service or SMS API) to continue reaping these benefits with more reliability.

Conclusion: Choosing the Best Method for You

Sending SMS from Gmail is definitely doable – and as we’ve shown, there are a couple of ways to make it happen. If you just need to send a quick text or two from your personal email, the manual method of using the carrier’s email-to-SMS gateway can work (e.g. emailing [email protected] for Verizon).

It’s free and doesn’t require signing up for anything extra. However, keep in mind the limitations: you have to know the person’s carrier, keep the message short, and understand that some carriers may block or drop these messages in 2025 and beyond.

For more regular use or business purposes, you’re likely better off with a third-party solution. Simple browser extensions like CloudHQ’s Gmail-to-SMS tool can take the guesswork out by figuring out carriers for you. Dedicated services like TextMagic and ClickSend provide an easy email-to-SMS pipeline that’s more reliable and feature-rich (at the cost of a fee per message).

And for those who need maximum reliability, scalability, or global texting, an API-based platform like Twilio is the way to go – it removes the dependency on carrier email gateways altogether and uses direct SMS routes with delivery confirmation.

Which method is best? It depends on your needs:

• If you’re an individual or small operation that only occasionally needs to send a text from email, try the free carrier gateway (while it lasts) or a free Chrome extension.

• If you’re a small business or organization sending texts to a list of customers or team members, consider an email-to-SMS service like ClickSend or TextMagic for ease of use. They’ll save you time and give you some support and reporting.

• If you’re a developer or larger business integrating SMS into your application or workflows (especially for critical alerts or high volumes), invest in a robust solution like Twilio’s SMS API. It may require some setup, but it will be far more reliable and scalable long-term, now that the old free gateways are closing down.

In summary, Gmail can indeed send a text message – either by cleverly addressing an email to an SMS gateway or by using an external tool to do the heavy lifting. Email-to-SMS is a convenient bridge between technologies, and even as the landscape changes (with carriers phasing out their gateways), new solutions are stepping up to ensure you can still get your message out. Whether it’s a one-off text to a friend from your Gmail or an automated alert to thousands of customers, you have options to make emailing to a phone possible. Happy texting (via email)!

Sources

1. Digital Trends – How to send a text from email using iPhone, Verizon, and more (digitaltrends.comdigitaltrends.com)

2. AT&T Official Support – Discontinuation of email-to-text service (June 2025) (att.com)

3. Simplified Alerts – Verizon & T-Mobile drop email-to-text: what are your options?(simplifiedalerts.comsimplifiedalerts.com)

4. Twilio Blog – Why email-to-SMS gateways are dying and modern alternatives (twilio.comtwilio.com)

5. ClickSend Help Center – What is Email-to-SMS and how to use it (help.clicksend.comhelp.clicksend.com)

6. GMass Blog – How to send a text from Gmail (methods and limitations) (gmass.cogmass.co)