Does email-to-SMS work for any SMS location?

[newsgroup guy]

Hi.

If I live, let's say, in the North of The United States, and I want to send a text message (from my email, if that makes a difference) to someone in the South of The United States and as far as the other coast of the continent, will that person:
a) get the text approximately around the time when I send it?
b) get the text when she returns to where the coverage is guaranteed to work? -or-
c) never get it unless she happens to be in the covered zone when the text message is delivered?
(I know how to do email-to-SMS, and I've done it before, so that's not an issue.)

I have to ask because I never had a cell, and I'm not interested in them, so therefore I don't exactly know how these small things might work.

Could someone enlighten me, please?

Thanks.

[blud7]

What you're talking about is called an SMS gateway.

a) the recipient SHOULD get the message around when you send it (slight to no delay)
b) unless they're out of range of a mobile network in which case she will

get the text when she returns to where the coverage is guaranteed to work

c) doesn't apply, but rarely (and it does happen), these messages are never delivered.

I'll just say that I know people have their reasons but cell phones are a huge convenience.
People don't use SMS as much anymore. With an internet plan you can use "free" unlimited
messaging services (e.g. whatsapp) which are practically instantaneous. Not to mention "free"
video chat etc. If you're at home most of the time these points are moot of course

[jman98]

Almost nobody in the United States uses the term SMS, by the way. The only reason I know to use it is that I worked in the US office of a European tech company on my previous job and we offered some SMS related services and I have friends overseas who know the term. Unfortunately in the USA, the only term 99% of the population understands is "texting".

Actually, kids and even a surprising amount of adults use SMS all the time in the USA. Young people use it in stupid situations where they could just ask someone a question in less time than it takes to write the message when the other person is a few feet away. I have co-workers who would rather use it endlessly for 5-10 minutes to resolve a work problem when a simple 1 minute phone call could do the job.

There are NO GUARANTEES period if you try to send email to SMS. NONE. My work used to rely on this as a monitoring mechanism for some computer systems and we found that messages never got received or might come up to a full day after they were sent. Needless to say, we had to use a real monitoring solution in the end. If you try to send a message to someone's phone maybe they will get it and maybe they won't. If in reality you live outside the USA and you send email to SMS to a US based recipient, you should be aware that every cell phone provider will charge the recipient an extra charge, usually 10 or 15 cents, if they open your message.

[newsgroup guy]

Thank you very much, guys.

It's no big deal, not like it's a business thing that must be delivered, or else... It's just that the earliest it's delivered, the sooner it's accomplished.

Info very much appreciated.

[ADeltaX]

The email-to-SMS gateway trick works incredibly well, but its reliability completely depends on knowing the specific mobile carrier of the recipient. Every major provider has its own unique domain suffix, like vtext.com for Verizon or txt.att.net for AT&T, which routes your email directly to their network as a standard text message. While this approach is completely free and works across almost any domestic location, it becomes much trickier with international numbers or smaller regional carriers that do not maintain public email gateways. If you are trying to reach someone without knowing their network provider beforehand, you usually have to look into a paid API service that automatically checks the carrier database before routing the message. If you are trying to deliver a longer, more detailed message to an unknown carrier without dealing with character limits, you can look into how to leave a voicemail without calling the phone directly. This technique relies on ringless voicemail technology, which uses a server-to-server connection to drop an audio file straight into the recipient's carrier mailbox bypass network. It completely avoids triggering a normal phone call on their device while ensuring your audio message lands safely in their visual voicemail tab. It is an excellent alternative for automated system alerts or distant communications when standard text-based network gateways are dropping your messages.