email to text message

Question

Level 1

14 points

email to text message

Before I switched to an iPhone it was possible for someone to email a message that was received as a text message (SMS). there are times that receiving a text message is much more convenient than checking email. The AT&T web site says it should be possible to do this by emailing a message as follows:

"All AT&T wireless phones are set up to send and receive e-mail messages by using the following address: yournumber@txt.att.net. You can exchange short e-mails with any e-mail address worldwide."

However, when I or anyone else tries to do this to my iPhone the email immediately bounces back with the message of "no such user" or something like that.

It is clear that on the iPhone you cannot enter anything other than numbers when you want to text someone but I would be content if I could receive texts that originate as an email.

AT&T says this feature doesn't work on iPhones.

However, I went into an Apple store and an employee successfully emailed a text message to themselves on their iPhone

I think the problem is that AT&T somehow messed up my account so that they don't have a way of accepting an email intended for my text messaging.

Can anyone shed any light on this? I have a 3GS.

Thanks,

Pete

Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Jun 28, 2009 5:41 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 28, 2009 6:13 PM in response to Peter Rock

Did you bring your phone to the store? The employee could have helped you.
I have not had any problems with emailing SMS & MMS.

This features has worked for iPhones.
I currently use it to keep my text message count low. Most US iPhone users did this to send MMS messages to other phones.

Take your iPhone to an AT&T or Apple store maybe they can help you.

AT&T currently blocks the MMS email only.

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Answer 2

Jun 28, 2009 6:33 PM in response to Peter Rock

This does work with the iPhone's mail client.

The sender of an SMS or MMS addresses the message to an email addresss for an email account that you access with the iPhone's mail client.

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Answer 3

Peter Rock Author

Level 1

14 points

Jun 28, 2009 6:38 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Hi Allan-
I don't understand all of your answer.

what does "The sender of an SMS or MMS addresses the message to an email addresss for an email account that you access with the iPhone's mail client." mean?

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Answer 4

Jun 28, 2009 6:49 PM in response to Peter Rock

Hello Peter.

When you addresss an email, you enter the email address for the recipient in the To: field.

When the sender of an SMS or MMS addresses the message - entering an email addresss for an email account that you access with iPhone's Mail client - entering your email address in the To: field for the SMS or MMS instead of your cell phone number with area code, the SMS or MMS will be recieved by you as an email with the iPhone's mail client.

This will also give you the sender's SMS or MMS email addresss for their cell phone.

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Answer 5

Peter Rock Author

Level 1

14 points

Jun 28, 2009 7:10 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Allan-
you CANNOT enter an email address in the "To:" field of the Message app on an iPhone. first of all the entry keyboard that pops up when you are in the Messages app only has letters and numbers. there is no way to enter the "@" symbol or a ".". even if you copy an email address and paste it into the "To:" field, when you try and send the SMS the "." and the "@" are removed.

give it a try and see what you see.

but, that isn't what I want to do. I want someone sitting at a computer using any old email client to send an email that gets sent to as a SMS. to do that the person should enter:
mynumber@txt.att.net

when the person does that with my cell phone number, the email gets bounced back. have you tried this on your computer using your cell phone number and the rest of the address above and iPhone and does it work?
thanks,
Pete Rock

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Answer 6

Jun 28, 2009 7:49 PM in response to Peter Rock

I have sent 10 email to text messages today. If it is an account problem the forums can't fix it.

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Answer 7

Jun 28, 2009 7:49 PM in response to Peter Rock

you CANNOT enter an email address in the "To:" field of the Message app on an iPhone.

I'm well aware of this and I never indicated this was possible. The following was copied from my first post.

+*_This does work with the iPhone's mail client._*+

What I provided applies to the iPhone's mail client for exchanging SMS or MMS.

What you are wanting to do is not possible with the iPhone's SMS/MMS client.

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Answer 8

Jun 28, 2009 7:56 PM in response to Peter Rock

Peter Rock wrote:
Allan-
you CANNOT enter an email address in the "To:" field of the Message app on an iPhone. first of all the entry keyboard that pops up when you are in the Messages app only has letters and numbers. there is no way to enter the "@" symbol or a ".". even if you copy an email address and paste it into the "To:" field, when you try and send the SMS the "." and the "@" are removed.

give it a try and see what you see.

Actually you can there is a work around, but I don't want to get into that.

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Answer 9

Jun 28, 2009 8:01 PM in response to Peter Rock

As a test, I just sent an email to my iPhone with my MobileMe account using the Mail.app on my Mac to be received as a text message with my iPhone's messaging client.

I addressed the email to "mynumber@txt.att.net", and the email I sent was received as an SMS with my iPhone's messaging client.

I suggest contacting AT&T technical support.

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Answer 10

Peter Rock Author

Level 1

14 points

Jun 29, 2009 9:00 AM in response to Allan Sampson

thanks Allan. I will re-contact AT&T.
Pete

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Answer 11

Jun 30, 2009 7:25 AM in response to Peter Rock

any solutions on this? I'm having the same problem with my 3GS. I'm in an online chat with AT&T and they're trying to tell me that it won't work with iPhones, but I know that's not true because my friend was able to receive a text on his iphone 3G sent from the same email account on the same computer

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Answer 12

Jun 30, 2009 7:31 AM in response to Scott Frey

the AT&T rep asked me to turn off my phone then said she was "going to resend your settings to the network to see if that will help your issue. "

after that. I was able to send 1 message successfully. I tried again, and the email bounced again. The problem is back. Arg

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Answer 13

drsailer

Level 4

1,531 points

Jun 30, 2009 7:32 AM in response to Scott Frey

It does work with iPhones. I just sent an email to number@txt.att.net (where number was my iPhone 3GS number) and I received the text almost immediately after the email was sent.

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Answer 14

Jun 30, 2009 7:35 AM in response to Scott Frey

sorry for the multiple posts. Finally the rep said that my port from verizon may not be complete yet (I just switched over yesterday), and I should wait until a full 24 hours has past. we'll see....

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Answer 15

Peter Rock Author

Level 1

14 points

Jun 30, 2009 8:32 AM in response to Scott Frey

Hi Scott-
ATT told me the same thing that the "full porting" may take up to 72 hours. I am skeptical, however, but will give them that amount of time.

You should be able to push ATT to resolve your issue. My conversations with their tech support have resulted in them acknowledging it is their issue, not Apples. they tested it on several iphones they had at their support center and confirmed it worked for them They also told me they are aware of this issue occurring from time to time. May require one of their network engineers to get involved.

If I find out anything further from ATT I will post it here.
Pete Rock

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