Free SMS to Email

June 22, 2009 11:18 AM

How can I send a SMS to an email address for free?

Note: I am NOT looking for Email to SMS, nor Voice to Email/SMS, but instead SMS to email.

I've searched for other answers and one thread did pop up. However there was never a decent answer for it.

I'm looking for something similar to this service.The only reason I'm wary of that one is that I don't want to use something that may send infinite spam. In other words, one that probably has a decent reputation. Not to mention having to type the email address every single time!

Hacks like work arounds will be fine. If I can even email myself via SMS I can create a filter while I'm gone to email it to my family.

Bonus: If there is a way to automatically email myself copies then that would be icing on the cake. I have limited storage on my phone.

The reason I need it is we're going to be traveling and I want a way to email my family where we are at any given moment. I don't want to incur charges on my family's cell phone bills, so direct text messaging is out.

Any ideas at all?

posted by magnoliasouth to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Sign up for Twitter, they can either follow you there or you can have your feed go to a different web page.
posted by IanMorr at 11:25 AM on June 22

Update: The link I provided (the service) is actually for software. I was too quick to post. I'm not looking for software but an actual service. Thanks!
posted by magnoliasouth at 11:27 AM on June 22

Isn't Twitter limited so so many SMS a month?
posted by magnoliasouth at 11:27 AM on June 22

I think the only limit is 1000 updates per day
posted by IanMorr at 11:33 AM on June 22

On my phone/plan (Samsung a707 on an AT&T plan) I am simply able to type an email address into the "to" field for text messages and it sends to that email address. The only difficult part is typing the @ character. Have you given that a try?
posted by likedoomsday at 11:50 AM on June 22

Like the answer above I can send an SMS to an email address simply by putting an email address in the TO: field on my phone. (Virgin Mobile - so it should work the same way on Sprint)
posted by COD at 12:15 PM on June 22

Verizon here, and like the others above, I can just put in an email address in the To: field.
posted by thewalledcity at 12:50 PM on June 22

I'm using T-Mobile and the phone I have won't let me enter letters. I can only enter numbers. :(
posted by magnoliasouth at 1:42 PM on June 22

Aha! I can, however, email text as a picture message. Great! That's all I needed! :)
posted by magnoliasouth at 1:45 PM on June 22

Sounds like you're set, but if you're sending messages out to lots of family members at once, you might want to check out Tatango.
posted by Maia at 4:34 PM on June 22

I have t-mobile and by changing the text input type I can send text messages to any email address. Alternativaly, when I create a blank message and go to send I end up on my contact list. When I then select options I have the option to "Enter Number" or "Enter Email".
posted by Raichle at 12:06 AM on June 23