{"id":178,"date":"2026-03-10T23:59:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T23:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/?p=178"},"modified":"2026-04-01T21:50:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:50:45","slug":"flightaware-text-alerts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/flightaware-text-alerts\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get FlightAware Text Alerts (After FlightAware Killed Them)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>You&#8217;re looking for <strong>FlightAware text alerts<\/strong> and you wound up here because&#8230; well&#8230; like so many others, you just found out they don&#8217;t <em>offer<\/em> SMS notifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They never have, actually. There used to be a workaround \u2014 but that&#8217;s dead now too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See, FlightAware <em>does<\/em> offer email alerts. So up until 2025, FlightAware users could get text alerts by using a little-known trick: Your cell phone provider could automatically convert email-to-text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;d enter your carrier&#8217;s email-to-text address (like <code>yournumber@vtext.com<\/code>) into the alert settings. FlightAware themselves even <a href=\"https:\/\/discussions.flightaware.com\/t\/flightaware-text-alerts\/14573\">recommended this approach in their forums<\/a>. But those carrier gateways have all shut down (more on that later in this article) \u2014 and <strong>they took FlightAware&#8217;s text alerts down with them<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, until now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The good news: <strong>there&#8217;s a new way to turn FlightAware alerts about departures, arrivals, delays, and more into texts<\/strong>. And I can get you set up on it in about two minutes flat \u2014 maybe less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"flightaware-text-alerts-table-of-contents\">FlightAware Text Alerts: Table of Contents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"#setting-up-flightaware-text-alerts-with-textemail\">Setting Up FlightAware Text Alerts with text.email<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"#what-happened-to-the-old-flightaware-text-alert-method\">What Happened to the Old FlightAware Text Alert Method?<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"#why-push-notifications-arent-a-real-replacement\">Why Push Notifications Aren&#8217;t a Real Replacement<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"#flightaware-text-alerts-pricing-and-getting-started\">FlightAware Text Alerts: Pricing and Getting Started<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"#who-benefits-most-from-flightaware-text-alerts\">Who Benefits Most from FlightAware Text Alerts?<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"#flightaware-text-alerts-next-steps\">FlightAware Text Alerts: Next Steps<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"setting-up-flightaware-text-alerts-with-textemail\">Setting Up FlightAware Text Alerts with text.email<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As I mentioned in before, FlightAware already sends email alerts. So we just need to route those emails to your phone as texts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And <strong>we&#8217;ll do that with <a href=\"https:\/\/text.email\">text.email<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a tool where if you send it an email, it shows up as a text message on your phone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 1: Sign up for text.email<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>First up, you&#8217;ll need to <strong>create a <a href=\"https:\/\/text.email\">text.email<\/a> account<\/strong>. During that process you&#8217;ll  pick a private keyword during signup, and this becomes part of your unique email address: <code>yournumber@yourkeyword.text.email<\/code>. (The private keyword makes it so random people can&#8217;t just send you texts via email.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;ll put that address into FlightAware momentarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 2: Set up your alert in FlightAware<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Log into your FlightAware account and navigate to your <a href=\"http:\/\/flightaware.com\/account\/manage\/alerts\">alerts page<\/a>. (It&#8217;s the bell on the top right.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Either click <strong>&#8220;Set up a new alert&#8221;<\/strong> to create a new alert, or click the pencil icon to edit one of your current alerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"443\" src=\"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-setupalert-tinified-1024x443.png\" alt=\"Set up your FlightAware alert\" class=\"wp-image-179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-setupalert-tinified-1024x443.png 1024w, https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-setupalert-tinified-300x130.png 300w, https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-setupalert-tinified-768x332.png 768w, https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-setupalert-tinified-1536x664.png 1536w, https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-setupalert-tinified.png 2004w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 3: Send the alerts to text.email<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Under step 4, <strong>&#8220;Where should we send these alerts?&#8221;<\/strong>, you&#8217;ll see options for your primary email and <strong>&#8220;Share this alert with a friend.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check that &#8220;share with a friend&#8221; box, and enter your text.email address: <code>yournumber@yourkeyword.text.email<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then click <strong>Save.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"635\" src=\"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-sharewithfriend-tinified-1024x635.png\" alt=\"Share flight alert\" class=\"wp-image-180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-sharewithfriend-tinified-1024x635.png 1024w, https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-sharewithfriend-tinified-300x186.png 300w, https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-sharewithfriend-tinified-768x476.png 768w, https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-sharewithfriend-tinified-1536x952.png 1536w, https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-sharewithfriend-tinified.png 2004w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>FlightAware will now send the alert email to your text.email address, and text.email delivers it to your phone as a text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What about multiple day alerts?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>FlightAware only has the &#8220;Share with a friend&#8221; option for multi-day alerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So you have a few options there:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Change the primary address<\/strong> for your account to your text.email address<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;ll still be able to grab the confirmation code (it will arrive in a text) so this <em>is<\/em> possible. It&#8217;s not elegant and it&#8217;s a little hacky, but it will work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Set up forwarding<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>You can use Gmail (or Outlook, or any other email system&#8217;s) email forwarding features to forward your FlightAware alerts to your text.email address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, in this screenshot, I&#8217;m setting up a filter to forward alerts from FlightAware that include the word &#8220;delayed.&#8221; I could also set up general filters to forward about specific flights, airlines, or any other info that comes in the alerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"605\" src=\"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-gmailfilter-tinified-1024x605.png\" alt=\"Creating a filter to forward emails\" class=\"wp-image-181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-gmailfilter-tinified-1024x605.png 1024w, https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-gmailfilter-tinified-300x177.png 300w, https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-gmailfilter-tinified-768x454.png 768w, https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-gmailfilter-tinified-1536x907.png 1536w, https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/flightaware-gmailfilter-tinified.png 2004w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Now these alerts will come to by phone as texts (albeit with a slight delay <strong>as they work through the pipes<\/strong> from FlightAware -&gt; Gmail -&gt; text.email).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-happened-to-the-old-flightaware-text-alert-method\">What Happened to the Old FlightAware Text Alert Method?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So right off the bat, it&#8217;s important we note: FlightAware never had a true built-in SMS alerting feature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What they had was a field where you could enter your phone&#8217;s carrier email address, and the carrier&#8217;s gateway would convert that email into a text. Those were addresses like <a href=\"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/verizon-email-to-text\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"20\"><code>@vtext.com<\/code> for Verizon<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/att-email-to-text\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"22\"><code>@txt.att.net<\/code> for AT&amp;T<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/tmobile-email-to-text\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"24\"><code>@tmomail.net<\/code> for T-Mobile<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those gateways are all dead now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Verizon, AT&amp;T, and T-Mobile all shut down (or neglected into death) their <a href=\"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/email-to-sms\/\">email-to-text gateways<\/a> over the past couple of years. The official reasons were too much spam and new regulations around automated text messaging. (Unofficial reason? I&#8217;m pretty sure those services weren&#8217;t bringing in big money so they weren&#8217;t worth the hassle.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the gateways went down, the text alert workaround went with them. People who&#8217;d been getting FlightAware texts for years suddenly stopped receiving them with no explanation or notice. I mean, you might <em>still<\/em> think you should be getting them and now you&#8217;re just realizing you haven&#8217;t gotten one in like two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/discussions.flightaware.com\/t\/text-alerts-in-the-last-6-months\/99625\">FlightAware forums<\/a> are still buzzing to this day with people still trying to figure out what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe I&#8217;ll go in there and self-promote this article. People on message boards <em>love<\/em> that, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"why-push-notifications-arent-a-real-replacement\">Why Push Notifications Aren&#8217;t a Real Replacement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>FlightAware <em>does<\/em> offer mobile push notifications through their app. They&#8217;re fine, but they aren&#8217;t as effective as a text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re anything like me \u2014 which, for your sake, could be a good or bad thing depending on the day \u2014 you miss push notifications all the time. They deliver silently or just disappear or don&#8217;t show up at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But you never miss a text. And <em>that&#8217;s<\/em> why you&#8217;re here and also why text.email exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What about vibe coding your own solution?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So could you just wire up your own solution here? I mean, sure. You and the sexy LLM du jour could wire up a way to turn FlightAware&#8217;s email alerts into texts using <a href=\"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/twilio-alternatives\/\">Twilio or a similar SMS API<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there are two issues. One, that&#8217;s a whole system to maintain, so you&#8217;re building yourself an ongoing project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two, and even bigger, there&#8217;s a regulatory layer that makes this harder than it looks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since 2023, all application-to-person text messages <em>have<\/em> go through officially registered campaigns or the messages will quietly go undelivered. That means registering your brand, registering your campaign, getting carrier approval, and maintaining ongoing compliance with proper STOP\/HELP handling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s called <a href=\"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/a2p-10dlc\/\">A2P 10DLC<\/a>, and it&#8217;s the reason you can&#8217;t just spin up a Twilio number and start sending texts like you could a few years ago. The registration process alone can take weeks and costs ~$75.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So between the system to build and maintain (that costs money and takes time) and the regulatory issues (that cost money and take time), <strong>it&#8217;s just <em>so much <\/em>easier to go with the system I&#8217;ve described here<\/strong>. (Which takes zero time and ultimately will cost you roughly the same amount.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"flightaware-text-alerts-pricing-and-getting-started\">FlightAware Text Alerts: Pricing and Getting Started<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When you&#8217;re ready to get started, you can subscribe to a plan at <a href=\"https:\/\/text.email\">text.email<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plans include 200 text messages per month, which should be more than enough for you unless you&#8217;re doing some <em>hardcore<\/em> flight tracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to try it before committing? Send any email (even a FlightAware alert, as a test) to <code>yournumber@text.email<\/code>. It&#8217;s totally free and you don&#8217;t have to sign up for anything to try it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"who-benefits-most-from-flightaware-text-alerts\">Who Benefits Most from FlightAware Text Alerts?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>FBO operators and line service coordinators. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Charter and flight department coordinators. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>GA aircraft owners and managers. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Executive assistants and travel coordinators. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pilot and crew families.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Freight and logistics coordinators.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Serious flight enthusiasts. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"flightaware-text-alerts-next-steps\">FlightAware Text Alerts: Next Steps<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>setup takes about a minute<\/strong>: sign up at <a href=\"https:\/\/text.email\">text.email<\/a>, grab your text.email address, and paste it into FlightAware&#8217;s &#8220;share this alert with a friend&#8221; field. Every selected departure, arrival, delay, diversion, and cancellation alert can become a text on your phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re already using FlightAware&#8217;s email alerts, you&#8217;re one field change away from <a href=\"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/email-to-text\/\">getting those same alerts as texts<\/a>. And if you&#8217;ve been wondering why FlightAware text alerts stopped working, now you know, and now you&#8217;ve got a fix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Want FlightAware text alerts? This is how to set them up in a couple of minutes flat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-email-to-sms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}