Brief Description
Sending SMS using Email! That’s what Email to SMS (email2SMS) is for. A mobile application to quickly send mass personalized SMS using emails, making it easier & faster to send to a group of contacts. Just send an email, and this app will convert it into a personalised SMS (able to work without email too). This application will use SMS services on mobile phone.
How does it work
This mobile application is connected to your gmail account. It is recommended to create a seperate gmail account for this if you are worried about privacy. It will then search your emails for a specific subject for processing into SMS. In that email, you must specify the recipients (supports phone number and phonebook contact-name) and also the SMS message to be sent.
On top of it, if there is no internet connection, you can manually type in the SMS in the phone and the app will automatically personalise it (see how in the example below). For personal customisation, the message can have these syntax below :
Show Syntax
All these syntax below is to be used only in the message body. This means is can ONLY be used in the email body or the manual-sms message.
[TO]
A must. Recipient names/groups or phone numbers are stated after this and be seperated by comma (,)
[MESSAGE]
A must. Type in the message here. Include any special syntax (e.g. [_DATE]) inside the message to personalise.
[_PREFIX] Inserts the contact’s prefix into the SMS.
[_SUFFIX] Inserts the contact’s suffix into the SMS.
[_FIRSTNAME] Inserts the contact’s first name into the SMS
[_LASTNAME] Inserts the contact’s last name into the SMS
[_DISPLAYNAME] Inserts the text of how the contact is shown on your device.
[_DATE] Inserts the date (either email’s date or phone’s date). Format can be selected under ‘Settings’
[_TIME] Inserts the time (either email’s time or phone’s time). Format can be selected under ‘Settings’
How To Use
This picture below tells the whole story in 3-simple steps. If you would like more details, please refer to the following text. We tried our best to keep it short, simple, and concise.
Assuming all the settings are at default, send an email to your Gmail account.
Email subject must be “Bricatta_E2S”. You can customise this later under “Settings”.
For the email contents, start off with a “[TO]” tag. After this tag, type in the contact persons/groups name (which exist in your phone) that you want to send the SMS to. Just seperate the names using a comma (,)
After that, insert a “[MESSAGE]” tag. After this tag, type what you want the SMS contents to be. For customisation, check-out the available syntax in this document.
Send the email.
Now, open the “Email2SMS” app on your mobile and login to your Gmail account (where you just sent the email to)
The app will automatically search for emails with the subject “Bricatta_E2S” sent in the past 24 hours for processing. Older emails will be ignored.
A pop-out box will appear to ask for your confirmation before sending SMS*.
In a while, the app will send an email to your email account (which you used to send the email) regarding the status of the job.
* Email2SMS Free will only send to a maximum of 5 phone numbers in an email. Please purchase the full edition when possible.
Examples
Example 1 : Send an SMS to all contacts named 'Taylor'
1) Send an email with subject “Bricatta_E2S”, and email body with “[TO] Taylor [MESSAGE] What do you want to say ? ”
2) Load the application and login to your gmail account (where you just sent the email). A summary box will appear.
Example 2 : Send an SMS to a group named 'LunchMates' keyword in my phone
1) Send an email with subject “Bricatta_E2S”.
2) Since there is only 1 contact-group with a keyword “Lunch” (also no contacts with the keyword in it), the email body can be “[TO] Lunch [MESSAGE] Hi [_PREFIX] [_FIRSTNAME] [_LASTNAME] [_SUFFIX], the time now is [_TIME] [_DATE]. Shall we meet up for lunch in an hours time ?”
3) In my contact list, there are 3 contacts under the group “LunchMates”. Load the application and login. A summary box will appear.
Example 3 : In the event there is no internet connection or other reasons, you can manually send an SMS to a group named 'LunchMates' in my phone and also include a phone number '0651925'
1) Click on the button ‘Manual SMS’. A new page will appear with [TO] and [MESSAGE]
2) In my contact list, there are 3 contacts under the group “LunchMates”. Click ‘Done’ and the summary box will appear. Notice the names and the extra phone number that was entered.
Features
- Customise and personalise your SMS messages by using the special built-in syntax. See below for available syntax.
- Quickly send batches of SMS for time-critical important announcement, like during an event. Not for use during emergencies.
- Advance searchable recipients’ name or contact group. Sending to recipient ‘John’ will include all names with ‘John’ in your contacts, like ‘John King’, ‘John Nill’.
- Interactive display of recipients, phone numbers, SMS message, and total SMS count before sending.
- SMS sending results email automatically sent back to the email’s sender when SMS sent. Will include any errors when sending SMS.
- Safety feature include user confirmation before sending SMS, customised email subject trigger text, etc
- Smart removal of duplicated phone numbers before sending SMS. This will prevent sending the same SMS to the same number.
- Smart internal archive to keep track of which emails has been processed.
- Searches emails with specific subject (customisable). Other emails ignored.
- Searches emails in the past 24 hours. Older emails ignored.
- For strategic reasons, this app only works with Gmail. More info in FAQ.
- Able to manually key in the recipients and message (in the event there is no internet connection or gmail access)
FAQ
Only Gmail is supported. How about other email services or POP ?
Answer
– The best way to view, add, update, and delete contacts/groups on your Android phone through Gmail. More info here.
– The best way to send and receive emails on your phone using Android
– Ensure proper connectivity between your phone and email server.
How can a contact or group be added into Gmail, then reflected/sync on my phone ?
Answer
– Create a new contact in Gmail. YouTube video here.
– Create a new contact group in Gmail. YouTube video here.
– When done, sync your contact list in Gmail to your android phone. YouTube video here.
I already have all my contacts in my phone, but not in Gmail. How do I import and sync my contacts in my Android phone to Gmail ?
Answer
There are many unwanted recipients that appear. What’s going on ?
Answer
I am unable to login to my Gmail account through the app. It keeps on saying there is an error. What’s the problem ?
Answer
If you are still encountering problem, please check your firewall connection to Gmail’s IMAP service is not blocked. If you are using Gmail’s extra security measure of “2-Step Verification”, please ensure you are using the “Application-specific password” for this app. The normal password will not work in this case. More info about this here.
Does it support other languages besides english ?
Answer
An SMS message can contain 160 characters. How come the app says more than 1 SMS is needed, while my message is less than 160 characters ?
Answer
I do not always have internet connection. How can I send such personalised SMS without internet connection ?
Answer
When will the paid version of Email2SMS be available ?
Answer
I found a bug! Where do I report it to ?
Answer
Important Notice :
Please note that the sent SMS charges does apply. Please check with your telco provider on the SMS charges.
Please check & ensure your compliance with your local laws in using Bricatta’s products.
Users of this application cannot and will not hold Bricatta responsible or liable for any damages done.