# How to get my web server to text my cell phone
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-my-web-server-to-text-my-cell-phone/475707
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 4, 2008, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-my-web-server-to-text-my-cell-phone/475707 "2008-12-04T18:18:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-my-web-server-to-text-my-cell-phone/475707/1 "2008-12-04T18:18:20Z")
More and more sites are following Twitter’s example, with web servers that can send and receive text messages from cell phones. I’m very interested to know how this works. I imagine it’s a negotiated deal made with cell phone carriers (Verizon, AT&T, etc.)… If so, is a different engine required to integrate with each carrier? And is the cost of this service within the means of regular people?
Much as I like to do stuff myself, I wonder if in this case somebody might have already done the legwork for me… so I’d be able to pay a nominal fee and stream content through that engine.
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### Author:  [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-my-web-server-to-text-my-cell-phone/475707/2 "2008-12-04T18:21:56Z")
You can just send email to [phonenumber@vtext.com](mailto:phonenumber@vtext.com) to send a text to someone on verizon. All the other carriers have something similar.
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### Author:  [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-my-web-server-to-text-my-cell-phone/475707/3 "2008-12-04T18:25:54Z")
> [@gazpacho](#):
>
> You can just send email to [phonenumber@vtext.com](mailto:phonenumber@vtext.com) to send a text to someone on verizon. All the other carriers have something similar.
Thanks! That’s simple. Couple of questions, though:
1. Will it accept emails generated by, for example, PHP?
2. How does the other direction work?
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-my-web-server-to-text-my-cell-phone/475707/4 "2008-12-04T18:28:35Z")
> [@Engywook](#):
>
> Thanks! That’s simple. Couple of questions, though:
>
> 1. Will it accept emails generated by, for example, PHP?
An email is an email.
> [@](#):
>
> 1. How does the other direction work?
To receive text messages, you’ll need an SMS gateway service from a cellphone provider. They will assign a number (you can pay extra for one of those cool five-digit short numbers too) and provide an API that you can poll to get incoming messages.
If you’re setup with a gateway, you can use that for outgoing messages as well.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-my-web-server-to-text-my-cell-phone/475707/5 "2008-12-04T18:38:35Z")
I don’t know about you guys, but all my phones (from Alltel) have always let me simply type in an email address in the Send field for text messages. And I’ve had those early Nokias that weren’t even in color.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-my-web-server-to-text-my-cell-phone/475707/6 "2008-12-04T18:39:16Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> An email is an email.
>
> To receive text messages, you’ll need an SMS gateway service from a cellphone provider. They will assign a number (you can pay extra for one of those cool five-digit short numbers too) and provide an API that you can poll to get incoming messages.
>
> If you’re setup with a gateway, you can use that for outgoing messages as well.
You can also do this in hardware.
Embedded cellphone modules are available, and the SMS data just flows out the serial port and into your computer. Then, the user just SMSs the phone number of the embedded board. We use a module from MulitTech Systems.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-my-web-server-to-text-my-cell-phone/475707/7 "2008-12-04T19:01:27Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> You can also do this in hardware.
> Embedded cellphone modules are available, and the SMS data just flows out the serial port and into your computer. Then, the user just SMSs the phone number of the embedded board. We use a module from MulitTech Systems.
That’s true – those boards have a slot for a SIM card that you can just stick in and start receiving. The main drawback is that it can’t handle a large amount of SMS traffic, and you’re dependent on the cell network. The big B2B SMS gateway providers will send your SMS data directly over the intertubes as soon as it gets to their hardwired routers.