This is an old revision of the document!
What Is an SMS Gateway?
SMS (Short Message Service) gateways enable a computer to send an SMS message to a telecommunications network (for example, Verizon, AT&T, etc.).
These gateways take a message sent through an email client like Gmail and route it to a mobile network. The mobile network, in turn, delivers the message to the recipient.
Similarly, there are MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) gateways for MMS messages (messages that contain images, audio, and other non-text data).
Here are the SMS gateway addresses for popular mobile network providers in the US:
Verizon – number@vtext.com T-Mobile – number@tmomail.net Sprint – number@messaging.sprintpcs.com AT&T – number@txt.att.net Boost Mobile – number@smsmyboostmobile.com Cricket – number@sms.cricketwireless.net U.S. Cellular – number@email.uscc.net And the MMS gateway addresses for these providers in the US are:
Verizon – number@vzwpix.com T-Mobile – number@tmomail.net Sprint – number@pm.sprint.com AT&T – number@mms.att.net Boost Mobile – number@myboostmobile.com Cricket – number@mms.cricketwireless.net U.S. Cellular – number@mms.uscc.net If you live in the EU, APAC region, or elsewhere, check this list to find out the SMS gateway addresses for your mobile network provider. However, note that the list may not be up to date for some areas.
Once you have the SMS gateway address, follow these steps to send a text message from Gmail:
Log in to gmail.com from your web browser. Click Compose from the Gmail inbox’s Main Menu (left sidebar) to open the Compose window. Gmail Text Compose In the To field of your new Gmail message window, type in the recipient’s 10-digit cell phone number (no country code), followed by ‘@’ and their SMS gateway address. For example, this is how we’d send to 1234567890@vtext.com for a Verizon user. Gmail Text Cellphone Number
Enter your email message and hit Send. Usually, there’s a limit of 140 characters for a Gmail SMS.
Some systems can automatically split a large message into smaller chunks and send them as multiple texts. However, not all systems offer this capability. Some may even convert that message into an MMS, which may not be supported by your recipient.
To be safe, make sure that your text message is less than 140 characters long.
Limitations Some limitations of sending texts through Gmail using SMS/MMS gateways are:
You need to know the SMS/MMS gateway address of the recipient in advance — and some mobile networks don’t even offer an SMS gateway address at all. Neither the email formatting option nor emojis can be used if you’re sending a message over an SMS gateway from Gmail. For sending anything other than plain text, you’ll have to use an MMS gateway, and MMS gateways are not supported across all mobile carriers.