What to do when your email-to-text gets shut down

AT&T and Verizon are sunsetting email-to-SMS. If you’ve relied on “email-to-text” for alerts, reminders, or marketing, here’s what you need to know — and how to keep your messages moving.

If you’ve been using email-to-SMS to connect with customers, patients, employees — or anyone else — there’s a good chance you’re feeling the impact of recent carrier changes.

As of June 17, 2025, AT&T and Verizon officially discontinued their email-to-text gateways. This means no more sending an email to a phone number and having it magically arrive as a text message.

For a lot of small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), this is a big deal. Because while email-to-SMS might’ve flown under the radar, it was doing a lot of heavy lifting — sending appointment reminders, shift changes, emergency alerts, password resets, even flash sales.

So the big question is: Now what?

Just because carriers are stepping away from email-to-text doesn’t mean you have to. Or should. With an approximate 98% open rate compared to email, SMS is still one of the fastest, most reliable ways to reach people. And email-to-SMS makes it easy.

No complicated setup. No crazy tech overhaul. Just type your message into Gmail or Outlook, hit send, and your message is sent as a text.

This kind of simplicity is still a must for many small businesses and organizations. Especially if you:

• Have limited IT or development resources
• Work across teams like marketing, operations, or customer support
• Rely on fast, direct communication with customers or staff

The good news? You’ve got options. There are modern business messaging platforms that replicate (and improve on) the old email-to-SMS experience — with better reliability, visibility, and compliance baked in.

Let’s take a closer look at how these modern solutions compare to carriers like Verizon or AT&T.

Today’s business messaging solutions do what carrier gateways never could. You still send messages from email, but with way more power under the hood.

Here’s how they stack up:

• Weak security: Originally built for person-to-person texting, not business use. No safeguards for GDPR, TCPA, or CCPA.

• Zero compliance tools: No built-in support for opt-out language or contact consent tracking.

• Unreliable delivery: Messages often fail, get flagged as spam, or take forever to land.

• No visibility: You never know if your message is delivered – or even read.

• No scalability: One-way, one-at-a-time communication. No support for team inboxes or message scheduling.

• Feature-free: No contact management. No autoreplies. No reporting. Just bare-bones delivery (when it worked).

• No new tools to learn: Keep using your current email client — just send messages like you always have.

• All your texts in one place: When it comes to replies, you can manage SMS conversations inside a unified inbox within the platform, so your entire team stays in sync.

• Budget-friendly controls: Set sending limits to avoid surprise charges or overages.

• Smart message formatting: Use tags to remove signatures or auto-replies, so texts stay clean and clear.

• Scalable for teams: Assign team aliases, forward replies, or manage group messages with ease.

• Compliant by default: Built-in tools for managing opt-ins, opt-outs, and proper number registration.

• Better delivery: Messages get there they’re going – no black holes or hour-long delays.

Now that you know how today’s email-to-text platforms compare (and how modern messaging platforms take the cake), here’s how SMBs are using them to stay connected, drive action, and keep communications running smoothly.

Still wondering if a switch to a modern text from email platform is worth it? Here are just some of the ways businesses like yours can use it every day:

Meet your customers where they are: their text messages. Send limited-time offers or flash sales via text – straight from email.

Keep field teams and on-site staff in the loop with shift updates, weather alerts, or system outage notices – sent from your usual email tools.

Use email-to-text for password resets, login alerts, or one-time passcodes without building a new integration.

Retail and e-commerce businesses rely on SMS for real-time notifications like order confirmations, shipping alerts, and delivery windows.

From dentists to salons to real estate agents, businesses reduce no-shows and boost attendance with SMS reminders triggered by a quick email.

If any of those use cases sound familiar, the next step is finding the right tool to make it all work again — without the added complexity. That’s where a platform like Sinch Engage comes in.

Whether you’re looking to replace your old email-to-SMS setup, or just getting started with email-to-text, Sinch Engage is here to help.

Sinch Engage is an all-in-one messaging platform built for busy teams needing to move fast — without coding, complicated tools, or extra headcount. Whether you’re a team of three or thirty, we make it easy to

• Send SMS directly from your existing client email

• Receive and manage replies inside your inbox

• Create contact groups for bulk messaging

• Strip out unwanted email signatures

• Ensure compliance with A2P 10DLC and privacy regulations

• Track performance and integrate with tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, NetSuite, and several other CRM, ecommerce, and MarTech tools. See all of our integrations.

And because it’s powered by the Sinch Super Network, your messages get delivered — on time, every time.

The old way of sending email to text might be gone, but your ability to connect with your customers and employees doesn’t have to be.

Sinch Engage helps you keep communication flowing with a simple, powerful email-to-SMS solution — backed by the reliability and flexibility your team needs to grow.

Ready to start sending text messages by email again? Book a demo or try Sinch Engage for free today.

Author: Allie Ochs Allie is the North American Marketing Copywriter at Sinch, focused on campaigns and ads. She loves crafting copy that shows how Sinch helps businesses connect with customers.