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If you’ve lived in the 21st century (and I’m thinking you have), you’ve probably experienced the stress of waiting for a very important email to arrive. Maybe you were waiting for an email from your boss, a future employer, a potential new customer, or a romantic crush.
Maybe you’ve even missed an important email because you didn’t see it in time or it was buried among spam or other less important messages.
Good news! No need to check your inbox constantly, you can get a text message alert when an email from an important contact is received in your inbox. You’ll save a lot of time and aggravation and be able to focus on other matters. You’ll also be able to know an important email was received immediately so you can act on it right away.
Advantages of Using Text Alerts for Important Emails
Getting text alerts for your most important emails has many advantages. You’ll be notified when that important email arrives in your inbox. No constant checking and refreshing your email to see whether that all-important email is now in your inbox.
If you’re in a location with limited cell phone coverage, you may be able to receive text messages even when you don’t have a strong signal and can’t connect to the Internet from your phone.
During emergency situations when cell towers can get overloaded with calls, text messages often can get through when calls can’t.
There are times when you simply can’t keep checking your inbox, such as when you’re busy doing something else or when checking your inbox would be rude to the people you’re with. Getting a text message can alert you that the important email is waiting for you when you have a chance to check your inbox.
Setting Up Text Message Alerts for Important Emails
[note] The steps described below describe an easy way to set up text alerts are for emails going to a Gmail account. If you use a different email provider, check out How-To Geek How to Configure Automatic Text Message Alerts for Important Emails [/note]
In just a few simple steps you can set up text alerts for emails from your most important contacts using IFTTT, If This Then That. Using an IFTTT Recipe you can easily get text alerts when an important contact sends an email to your Gmail account.
While IFTTT currently works to notify you of messages received in Gmail, it doesn’t matter which email provider the sender uses. They can use any email provider and you will get text alerts using IFTTT when their email messages appear in your Gmail inbox.
What you need:
- An IFTTT account (free)
- Your cell phone number
- Your Gmail address
- The email address of your important contact
=> Learn how to get started with IFTTT: IFTTT- Tech to Make Your Life Easier!
1. Activate the SMS Channel at IFTTT
Go to the SMS Channel at IFTTT and activate it, if you haven’t done this previously, so you can get text messages from IFTTT.
(SMS is also known as text messages: SMS definition at Wikipedia.)
Enter your cell phone number on the SMS Channel so IFTTT can send text messages to you and so you can see the phone number for IFTTT and add it to your contacts.
You don’t have to name your contact “IFTTT”. You can name it anything you want, such as Magic Genie, Santa Claus, Tech Buddy or whatever.
2. Use Gmail-to-SMS Recipe
You can create your own Recipe, but why not make life easier and use a Recipe that’s already been created?
You can use this Recipe, for example, or search for a different one:
Click the blue button above to open a pop-up window so you can set up this Recipe. In the window you can add the email address of the important person whose emails you want to receive text alerts about.
You’ll also see the text message you’ll receive when you receive an email from that important person. You don’t need to change this information.
Then click the Add button in the window to save your settings.
Now you’ll get a text message every time an email from that important person arrives in your inbox.
Note that IFTTT has a monthly limit for sending text messages to some countries. If your country has a limit you may run out of text message notifications from IFTTT if you get a lot of emails from your important contact.
Also check out these IFTTT Recipes:
Your Thoughts
Have you ever checked your inbox repeatedly for an important email? Did you ever miss an important email because you didn’t see it in time? Do you have important contacts you would like to set up in an IFTTT Recipe so you can get text messages? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
I might use this. I would have to change my email at the bank to my gmail address. they send me emails telling me when certain companies make announcements and when I can deal on the stock market at a discounted commission so these emails are important. The stock market isn’t being nice to me at the moment, so I need all the help I can get. I’m trying out Grammarly at the moment. It’s spotting my errors in this comment quite effectively!
I’ve entered a photography competition, it’s being judged this week and the winner will be presented with prizes at a canal festival at the weekend. I’m quite looking forward to the festival, I got good photos last year. We have a storm coming, but it should be all over by the weekend, but it’ll still be cloudy. For an event like this I plan some of the shots based on what I’ve done before. My plan for parking the car is more important! I have a list of possible places!
Hi Mike, Yes, good point, you can set text alerts for email message from financial institutions in addition to people. If someone subscribed to email notices of new job listings, they may want text messages any time the word “Job” is mentioned in the subject line of an email.
Best wishes for much success in the photography competition. I remember your photos from the canal festival. So many wonderful colors. You capture festive moods very well!
Hey Carolyn,
Nice share again. Is this service is free? any Country limitations are their please specify thanks
Cheers,
Rahul
Hi Rahul, Great questions. Yes, the service from IFTTT is free. If you don’t have a cell phone plan with unlimited text messages, you may for the text messages if they exceed your monthly limit for your plan.
IFTTT started setting limits on the number of text messages it would send to certain countries last year, in 2014. These limits aren’t specified anywhere on the IFTTT site. You would have to create an account on IFTTT and activate the SMS channel with your cell phone number, including your country code, and then you would see if you have a monthly limit on text messages and how much that limit (if any) is.
Special thanks for you I will check out wheather my country supports or not fo this feature if supports then ho many texts it will be going to provide.
Cheers
Rahul
Hi Rahul, I’m so glad you’re checking this out. The monthly limits I’ve seen people mention in various countries range from 10 to 100. But maybe your country won’t have a limit!
Even with a limit you may want to use this free tool to get text alerts for your most important emails. I hope it goes well for you, Rahul!
Really appreciate thank you so much
You’re very welcome, Rahul!
I think this service is very good to use if want immidiate message . I would use this for sure.
Hi Ravinder, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, if you are expecting important email messages you should set up this IFTTT recipe for your Gmail account. No need to keep checking your inbox, let a text message alert you to important emails!
Great tips for email alerts. It is really beneficial to grow business. Thank you for sharing it.
Hi Henry, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Great point, this tool can be very helpful for businesses who want to respond very quickly to important emails.
Hi Carolyn Ma’am,
Thank you for this informative post. I think this article is going to be very helpful for me either Becuase I got plenty of emails every day, and most of them are important. I have to keep on looking my email box until it arrives. IFTTT seems to be an excellent tool that will be going to keep me updated with my emails via Sms.
Thank you again ma’am
Regards,
Mohit
Hi Mohit, You’re right, we can be much more timely with our replies when we are able to get text alerts for important emails. Setting up this feature takes just a few minutes and you’ll definitely get that time back by not having to check your inbox every few minutes when you’re waiting for an important message!
Interesting article. Although I receive email to my mobile phone which is always with me, this is a great alternative or as a reminder. Many times i tend just to close the email prompt on my phone but I always check my text messages.
Hi William, Excellent point. Sometimes you can miss notifications but text messages stay on your phone so you can retrieve them later. When an email is important you want to be sure you don’t miss the alert!