How to Text from Gmail

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This wikiHow teaches you how to send an email as a text message from Gmail. In order to do this, you'll need to know the phone number and carrier email code for your recipient. Keep in mind that, while you can easily send SMS messages of 160 characters or less to most carriers, attempting to send pictures, videos, or long messages via email-to-text won't work for many phones.

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Finding Your Text Address

Unfortunately, not all carriers support texts sent from an email address.
Most standard text (SMS) messages have a limit of 160 characters.

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You'll use this site to determine the carrier email code to use.

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\n"> Scroll down to the "Search the list" section. You'll find this near the top of the page.

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You may have to scroll down to find your country.

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For example, if your recipient uses Sprint, you would type in Sprint .

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You may have to scroll down to see the "Gateway" result.
In some cases, you'll see several different options which pertain to subcategories of a carrier. These options will usually all have the same address.

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Texting from Gmail

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If you aren't logged in, enter your email address and password when prompted.

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On mobile, you'll tap the pencil-shaped "Compose"

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Type in your recipient's phone number. In the "To" or "Recipient" field, type in the 10-digit phone number used by the person to whom you're sending your message.

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For example, the code for Verizon is "@vtext.com", so you might type 1234567890@vtext.com into the "To" field to text a Verizon number.

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You can add a subject line as well if you like, but not all SMS services will display the subject.
Make sure to keep your message under 160 characters if you want to send it as a standard SMS text message. Using more than 160 characters will result in the message being sent as an MMS or EMS message, which may not be supported by your recipient.

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On mobile, you'll tap the paper plane-shaped "Send"

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Community Q&A

If I send a text from Gmail, does it appear to the recipient as if it's coming from my cell phone number?

Community Answer

When you text using Hangouts (the Gmail messaging service) it will use your email, not your phone number.

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What should I do if I received a message from a Gmail account that I don't recognize? Community Answer Use common sense; don't open attachments, don't give them your credit card number, etc.

When I send a text in Gmail, they get my emojis as questions marks. Why? Community Answer

The email and text emojis are different programming. Even when someone responds from a phone, you can check it from your computer and if they put in a ":)", it will show as a "?".

Ask a Question 200 characters left Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Advertisement

SMS messaging should work for virtually all carriers, though MMS messaging (e.g., sending a photo) isn't as common.

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