{"id":556,"date":"2026-06-08T04:00:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T04:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/?p=556"},"modified":"2026-06-08T21:35:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T21:35:38","slug":"replies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/replies\/","title":{"rendered":"SMS Replies in text.email (Two-Way Conversations Are Here)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the most requested improvements to text.email is now live: You can reply to SMS messages<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When text.email started, we wanted to focus on one-way SMS alerts. (Send an email to a phone number, text.email turns it into a text message).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s great for (most) alerts, notifications, reminders, monitoring systems, and other messages where you just need to get someone\u2019s attention quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But sometimes, the person receiving the text needs to answer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now they can with SMS replies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And not only that: You can have a back-and-forth conversation with email and text as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How SMS Replies Work in text.email<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In one sentence: When you send an SMS through text.email and the recipient replies, you\u2019ll get that reply sent back to you as an email<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You (or your server, monitoring software, SCADA controller, or whatever) send a message to 5551234567@your-subdomain.text.email<\/code>…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That person replies by SMS…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Replies go to your email address<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When someone replies to a text.email SMS, you’ll receive that reply as an email<\/strong> (it comes from a text.email email address). The subject line includes the phone number that replied to help you spot it right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(And yes, if you’re thinking what I’m thinking: You could definitely set up a Gmail filter<\/a> so you get that reply texted to your phone.) <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is more powerful and useful than you might realize at first glance. This means if you’ve dropped in your text.email address for server alerts and your technician replies to those messages, you’ll get those replies back in your inbox<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can reply back<\/em> to the response via email<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Want to reply to that response? Send a reply to the email, and it will be delivered via text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So the flow becomes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n