Need help figuring out how to text, oh about 5000 people at once!

[bradleyheathhays]

I have an iphone 5 through AT&T with unlimited text and I need to figure out how to do mass text msg to a very large group of phone numbers. Trying to do a little marketing for my small business. After analyzing past phone bills I've got somewhere between 5-10 thousand phone numbers I'd like to send a mass text message to once a month. As this number is so large doing it through the phone itself would take just way too long, so using some kind of alternative mass text method would be my only option. Can anyone give advice on how I can use the net to send text messages to this many people? If it turns out this would only be possible through another carrier I would probably switch.

I'm open to anything. Thanks.

 

[xrayeyes]

I don't know about ATT, but Verizon has an online pc texting service. And still, I am not sure how many you can send at once. I would investigate a pc option.

 

[willerz2]

Sending a text to 5-10 thousand people at once by manually tapping each contact? Challenge accepted.

If you have a Mac, you can probably do it a lot faster if your contacts are also on your Mac, but they'd be iMessages rather than SMS. Check to see if you have an online SMS manager as @xrayeyes pointed out. The big 5 carriers should have them in the US. Not sure about other carriers worldwide.

 

[Caesars]

I remember being able to email people as texts when I was a kid, but that was a long time ago.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bradleyheathhays]

Thanks for taking up the challenge willerz. Found a list for most of the world's carriers' SMS managers and how to format an email to get it to that networks's phone numbers. This is the list for the US:

Alltel Wireless: number@message.alltel.com, number@text.wireless.alltel.com
Alaska Communications: number@msg.acsalaska.com
AT&T: number@txt.att.net
Bluesky Communications: number@psms.bluesky.as
Boost Mobile: number@myboostmobile.com
Cellular One: number@mobile.celloneusa.com
Cellular South: number@csouth1.com
Centennial Wireless: number@cwemail.com
Cinncinnati Bell: number@gocbw.com
Cingular (postpaid): number@cingular.com
Cingular GoPhone (prepaid): number@cingulartext.com
Claro: number@vtexto.com
Cricket: number@sms.mycricket.com
General Communications: number@mobile.gci.net
Golden State Cellular: number@gscsms.com
Globalstar: number@msg.globalstarusa.com
Helio: number@myhelio.com
i-Wireless (Sprint PCS): number@iwirelesshometext.com
i-Wireless (T-Mobile): number.iws@iwspcs.net
Iridium: number@msg.iridium.com
MetroPCS: number@mymetropcs.com
Nextel: number@messaging.nextel.com
Pioneer Cellular: number@zsend.com
Pocket Wireless: number@sms.pocket.com
Qwest Wireless: number@qwestmp.com
South Central Communications: number@rinasms.com
Sprint PCS: number@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Straight Talk: number@vtext.com
Suncom: number@tms.suncom.com
Syringa Wireless: number@rinasms.com
T-Mobile: number@tmomail.net
TracFone: number@mmst5.tracfone.com
Unicel: number@utext.com
US Cellular: number@email.uscc.net
Verizon Wireless: number@vtext.com
Viaero: number@viaerosms.com
Virgin Mobile: number@vmobl.com


Of course this requires knowing what network a number belongs in order to format the destination address correctly. There used to be a service that ended back around 2008 that let you send an email to a phone number in the exact same way except you only had to format the phone number into one style email address no matter what network it belonged to. After you sent it to the service it sorted it out for you and sent it on it's way. If there's anything like that around anymore I'd sure like to hear about it.

My database is in the form of a gigantic column of phone numbers saved as a document in .txt format. Using a repeating macro in Works I could get the entire column into any of the carrier's formats easily. Could then just paste the addresses into gmail (?) and send them out. I'm guessing that most of the phone numbers in the US probably belong to the top 7 or 8 carriers. So you could just format my gigantic column of phone numbers into each of the 7 or 8 carriers' formats and just send them all. Most of the emails would come back undeliverable but some would get through each time. And after all the sends whoever belonged to one of those top 8 carriers got the text. Or do free email services like gmail keep a watch for those types of mass emails?

Also willerz I'm interested in how a Mac would help out. Never owned one but I've always just wanted the first excuse to pick one up so this might be it.

 

[xrayeyes]

Are you talking of texting or emailing these contacts? If texting you wouldn't need to know the recipient network would you?

Also, have you tried calling ATT for help with this? Just curious what their response is!

 

[Ledsteplin]

Thanks for taking up the challenge willerz. Found a list for most of the world's carriers' SMS managers and how to format an email to get it to that networks's phone numbers. This is the list for the US: Alltel Wireless: number@message.alltel.com, number@text.wireless.alltel.com Alaska Communications: number@msg.acsalaska.com AT&T: number@txt.att.net Bluesky Communications: number@psms.bluesky.as Boost Mobile: number@myboostmobile.com Cellular One: number@mobile.celloneusa.com Cellular South: number@csouth1.com Centennial Wireless: number@cwemail.com Cinncinnati Bell: number@gocbw.com Cingular (postpaid): number@cingular.com Cingular GoPhone (prepaid): number@cingulartext.com Claro: number@vtexto.com Cricket: number@sms.mycricket.com General Communications: number@mobile.gci.net Golden State Cellular: number@gscsms.com Globalstar: number@msg.globalstarusa.com Helio: number@myhelio.com i-Wireless (Sprint PCS): number@iwirelesshometext.com i-Wireless (T-Mobile): number.iws@iwspcs.net Iridium: number@msg.iridium.com MetroPCS: number@mymetropcs.com Nextel: number@messaging.nextel.com Pioneer Cellular: number@zsend.com Pocket Wireless: number@sms.pocket.com Qwest Wireless: number@qwestmp.com South Central Communications: number@rinasms.com Sprint PCS: number@messaging.sprintpcs.com Straight Talk: number@vtext.com Suncom: number@tms.suncom.com Syringa Wireless: number@rinasms.com T-Mobile: number@tmomail.net TracFone: number@mmst5.tracfone.com Unicel: number@utext.com US Cellular: number@email.uscc.net Verizon Wireless: number@vtext.com Viaero: number@viaerosms.com Virgin Mobile: number@vmobl.com Of course this requires knowing what network a number belongs in order to format the destination address correctly. There used to be a service that ended back around 2008 that let you send an email to a phone number in the exact same way except you only had to format the phone number into one style email address no matter what network it belonged to. After you sent it to the service it sorted it out for you and sent it on it's way. If there's anything like that around anymore I'd sure like to hear about it. My database is in the form of a gigantic column of phone numbers saved as a document in .txt format. Using a repeating macro in Works I could get the entire column into any of the carrier's formats easily. Could then just paste the addresses into gmail (?) and send them out. I'm guessing that most of the phone numbers in the US probably belong to the top 7 or 8 carriers. So you could just format my gigantic column of phone numbers into each of the 7 or 8 carriers' formats and just send them all. Most of the emails would come back undeliverable but some would get through each time. And after all the sends whoever belonged to one of those top 8 carriers got the text. Or do free email services like gmail keep a watch for those types of mass emails? Also willerz I'm interested in how a Mac would help out. Never owned one but I've always just wanted the first excuse to pick one up so this might be it.

I don't know about all the others, but for Verizon, I've always used number@vzwpix.com That works for MMS. It gives you 1000 characters. Number@vzw.com is SMS and gives you 160 characters. number@vtext.com may also work, as my sister emailed me to messages app as text with that.

 

[bradleyheathhays]

Yes xray I think texting would be the most straight forward way to get this done, but so far I haven't found a feasible way to text 5000 people through my phone. To my knowledge it would take days of screen work. But if there's a way this could be done maybe through an app please let me know.

on calling at&t yes I would have some mixed feelings on calling them on this.

 

[Deckyon]

Mixed feelings on asking permission to spam? No way!

 

[Col.bris]

Spamming text messages like this is illegal in Australia unless you have permission

 

[willerz2]

Spamming text messages like this is illegal in Australia unless you have permission

Probably not illegal in some other countries/continents, but would definitely raise a flag on many levels since your text usage just suddenly spiked up to the thousands in a single day. Verizon's flagged my account on several occasions for mass sending a Happy Holiday message to my address book just to make sure my device was not stolen or my account was not hijacked for malicious use.

The Mac reference was for the Messages app. I use it on occasion at work, but never for Messages. I believe it only handles iMessages but it may work for regular messages as well if you possibly link a phone number to the AppleID. Maybe someone else can chime in on whether the Messages app on the Mac works.

 

[xrayeyes]

Yes xray I think texting would be the most straight forward way to get this done, but so far I haven't found a feasible way to text 5000 people through my phone. To my knowledge it would take days of screen work. But if there's a way this could be done maybe through an app please let me know.

on calling at&t yes I would have some mixed feelings on calling them on this.

Well, my advice had been to find a way to text off your pc, not your phone. Can be done with some carriers. But...didn't read the original post thoroughly enough and assumed it was your own clients that you were sending these texts to? If this is unwanted spamming....well, may a thousand years of misery fall upon your head! LOL! If it's your own clients, then carry on!

 

[zstairlessone]

So are these 5000 people expecting these monthly reach out and texts? Most people I know pay for each message over a certain number - may not be appreciated. I know I wouldn't be happy.

 

[Col.bris]

This thread has run it's course and going no where. It is agreed that sending this volume of messages is an issue and also may be infact be not in the best of interest to this forum to continue to discuss the question Your answer lies on a PC or Mac using purchased applications and or using a legitimate service that you pay for. So with that this thread is closed.