For years, the free carrier email-to-SMS gateway was the quiet workhorse of system alerts and quick texts. You emailed number@vtext.com or number@tmomail.net and a text landed on the phone. Simple, free, and it worked. In 2026, that era is mostly over. The major US carriers have shut down or are phasing out their gateways, and messages sent to the old addresses fail silently. This guide lists the well-known gateway addresses, explains which ones still work, and covers what replaced them.
How email-to-SMS gateways worked
The concept was straightforward. Every mobile carrier ran an email gateway that converted incoming email into SMS. To reach a phone, you addressed an email to the phone number plus the carrier’s gateway domain. The subject line and body became the text message, and the reply path went back to your email address.
People used these gateways for server alerts, appointment reminders, two-factor codes sent by small tools, and personal tricks like emailing themselves a reminder. Because anyone could send to them with no registration and no cost, they also became a favorite channel for spam and phishing, which is ultimately what killed them.
The gateway address list
Here are the addresses that defined the email-to-SMS era, with their current status as we understand it. Treat the status column as a snapshot that can change, and check before you build anything on it.
| Carrier | Gateway address | Status |
|---|---|---|
| AT&T | number@txt.att.net (SMS), number@mms.att.net (MMS) | Shut down mid 2025 |
| T-Mobile | number@tmomail.net | Offline since late 2024 |
| Verizon | number@vtext.com (SMS), number@vzwpix.com (MMS) | Being phased out, unreliable |
| Sprint | number@messaging.sprintpcs.com | Shut down |
| Boost Mobile | number@sms.myboostmobile.com | Shut down |
| U.S. Cellular | number@email.uscc.net | Uncertain, test before use |
| Google Fi | number@msg.fi.google.com | Uncertain, test before use |
| MetroPCS | number@mymetropcs.com | Uncertain, test before use |
The pattern is clear: the big three national carriers have all walked away from free email-to-SMS. Smaller carrier and MVNO gateways that still technically exist are fragile and can disappear without notice.
The cruelest detail of the shutdowns is how they fail. Gateway failures are usually silent. Your email client shows the message as sent. No bounce comes back. The text simply never arrives. If your monitoring alerts, cron notifications, or customer messages route through one of these addresses, you may have been losing messages for months without knowing.
What to use instead
If you depended on email-to-SMS, the replacement is not another free trick. It is a proper messaging API, and it is more affordable and reliable than the gateway ever was. The modern options:
- SMS APIs. Providers like Twilio, Plivo, and others let you send texts programmatically with delivery receipts, so you know what actually arrived. You register your sending number properly, which keeps you compliant.
- 10DLC for US application traffic. If you are sending business messages to US numbers, 10DLC registration is the standard path. It gives you a registered local number with real throughput and carrier trust.
- Webhooks for alerts. Instead of emailing a gateway for server alerts, send the alert to an API or a messaging platform integration. You get confirmation that it went out, which the gateway never gave you.
Our SMS API guides cover the API landscape in more depth, including 10DLC setup and troubleshooting.
How to find the right gateway for a number
One reason email-to-SMS was always fiddly: you had to know the recipient’s carrier to pick the right domain, and people switch carriers while keeping their numbers. If you ever need to identify a carrier for a US number, free carrier lookup tools can tell you the current carrier behind a number. That was useful for choosing a gateway address, and it is still useful today for routing and validation decisions.
Just remember that a carrier lookup tells you the network, not whether the gateway is alive. Even with the correct address for the correct carrier, the shutdowns described above mean the message may go nowhere. Verify delivery with a live test, not an assumption.
If you are stuck on the old gateway today
Maybe you just discovered that your alerts stopped arriving. Here is a short recovery plan:
- Audit where gateway addresses appear. Search your codebase, cron jobs, monitoring configs, and scripts for the old domains like tmomail.net, txt.att.net, and vtext.com.
- Test each one. Send a test message and confirm it arrives. Do not assume silence means success.
- Pick a replacement per use case. Transactional alerts go to an SMS API. Marketing messages need a registered campaign and proper opt-in.
- Mind message length. Gateway messages were chopped by SMS segment rules, and API messages follow the same character limit rules. Keep alert texts short.
Our free tools hub includes utilities that help you plan and check message campaigns before you send.
Compliance note
Email-to-SMS was never a way around messaging rules. Marketing texts to US numbers require consent under the TCPA, and carrier registration rules apply regardless of which technology sends the message. Switching to an API does not change your obligations. It just gives you a reliable pipe. This article is general information, not legal advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does email to SMS still work in 2026?
Mostly no. AT&T and T-Mobile have shut down their gateways, and Verizon is phasing its out. Smaller carrier gateways may still function but are unreliable and can vanish without notice.
Why did the carriers shut down email-to-SMS?
The free gateways became a major channel for spam and phishing because anyone could send through them without registering. Carriers retired them rather than maintain them under modern messaging regulations.
Why do my gateway messages fail without a bounce?
That is how the shutdowns behave. The email is accepted and then silently dropped, so nothing comes back to tell you the text never arrived.
What is the best replacement for email-to-SMS alerts?
A proper SMS API with delivery receipts. For business messaging to US numbers, register through 10DLC. For internal alerts, wire your monitoring to an API or a messaging platform integration.
Can I still use vtext.com for Verizon?
Verizon has been phasing out vtext.com and senders report delivery near zero. Treat it as dead and migrate to a supported option.