What is an SMS Address?

A short messaging service (SMS) address is the equivalent email address used by SMS systems to send messages to a mobile phone through the SMS system. For most users within the United States (US) and Canada, their SMS address will be their phone number, including area code, following by an address locator that depends on the phone service they have. By understanding a person’s SMS address, someone can easily and quickly send text messages to another person’s mobile phone without using a phone or SMS program, and can instead simply use an email provider.

SMS systems allow people to quickly and easily send messages to each other using mobile phones and computers. These messages are typically limited to around 140 characters, though some services will also allow images, sound files, and even video files to be sent through the system. An SMS address is the location used by phones or computers to send messages through an SMS system to another mobile phone. By knowing a person’s SMS address, someone else can quickly and easily send text messages to the other person through any email service.

For most North American mobile phone users, their SMS address will be their mobile phone number, including area code, followed by “@” and the identifier of the mobile service they use. This identifier depends on the mobile service a person has, much like traditional emails are sent to a person’s email account and require an identifier for the email service the recipient uses. The identifiers for most mobile phone providers are readily available on the Internet and can be used to determine the SMS address of anyone in combination with a person’s phone number.

Some common services and identifiers include Verizon Wireless® with @vtext.com, Cingular® which uses @mobile.mycingular.com, T-Mobile® with @tmomail.net, and Boost Mobile® which uses @myboostmobile.com. In order to determine someone’s SMS address, a person simply needs to know his or her mobile phone number and the mobile provider he or she uses. For example, if a person has the phone number (012) 345-6789 and had mobile service with Verizon Wireless®, then his or her SMS address would be 0123456789@vtext.com.

Parentheses and hyphens are not used in SMS addresses, and a one is not placed before the area code for most North American users. This address can be entered into an email service, in a message’s “To:” line and used to send a message through an SMS system to a person’s mobile phone. Much like text messaging, the system will cut off characters past the limit of around 140, and the receiver may need to pay any typical rates for receiving text messages, depending on his or her provider and service type.