# What happens if I send a text message to a landline? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 16, 2013, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845 "2013-04-16T15:34:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/1 "2013-04-16T15:34:10Z")
Suppose I’m trying to text somebody, but I accidentally select their home number instead of their cell when I’m picking the recipient. What happens after I hit send? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/2 "2013-04-16T15:40:33Z")
Depends on the carrier. Some services will translate your text via voice synthesis to deliver it to the landline. (Sprint charges a fee for this service, for example.) Others will send you an SMS reply saying the message can’t be delivered. Others will just have the message disappear into the void. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/3 "2013-04-16T15:40:49Z")
Why not send one and see what happens? :dubious: I believe that when I’ve done this I get a note back from Verizon saying it was undeliverable due to the number not being enabled to receive text. ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Pumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@Ms.Pumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Pumpkin)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/4 "2013-04-16T15:42:45Z")
I just get a little error icon with a note that says “not sent”. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/5 "2013-04-16T16:09:21Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Why not send one and see what happens? :dubious: Because it might cost me money, as **friedo** pointed out. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/6 "2013-04-16T16:22:17Z")
It translates the text to voice for me, but I believe it’s the home phone that gets dinged with the nominal charge. (Bell Canada) ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/7 "2013-04-16T16:36:53Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > Because it might cost me money, as **friedo** pointed out. My carrier sends me back a message that ask if I want to pay to translate the text into voice. I just don’t respond that I want to. You could . . . call your carrier perhaps and ask them. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/8 "2013-04-16T21:58:06Z")
Here in the UK, the phone rings and a computerised female voice reads the text out to you. It’s quite amusing if the text includes abbreviations. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/9 "2013-04-16T22:49:11Z")
I did that the other day. Sent the text to the office number instead of my boss’s phone. I got nothing back at all. In case anyone is curious, my carrier is Verizon and her landline is Sprint. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/10 "2013-04-16T23:22:37Z")
I have received one of these, and it was translated and left on my answering machine. Not sure what carrier the sender was using. I think my home phone was Verizon at the time, but it could have been AT&T. ---
**Author:** ![duncs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@duncs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duncs)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/11 "2013-04-17T14:25:09Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Here in the UK, the phone rings and a computerised female voice reads the text out to you. It’s quite amusing if the text includes abbreviations. It was [Tom Baker](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4665254.stm) for a little while in the UK ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/12 "2013-04-17T15:22:34Z")
I have Verizon and I get a text message back that says it’s a landline and can’t receive texts. ---
**Author:** ![sidecar\_jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sidecar\_jon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidecar_jon)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/13 "2013-04-17T15:54:11Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Here in the UK, the phone rings and a computerised female voice reads the text out to you. It’s quite amusing if the text includes abbreviations. Or as happened to me it waits til two o’clock in the morning.. causes a panic to answer this obviously very important phone call, reads it out in a robotic voice thats somehow taken six hours to arrive… ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-send-a-text-message-to-a-landline/655845/14 "2013-04-17T15:54:56Z")
Yep. I have AT&T and I just tried it to see what would happen, and I got an invalid number message back. I didn’t realize some carriers will actually voice it for you.