Would you like to receive email on your cellphone, but you don’t want to purchase an expensive smartphone and pay for the corresponding data plan?  One option is to forward your email to your phone via text message.  An unlimited texting plan is less expensive than a data plan and you can receive texts on virtually an cellphone.  I’ve used this system for a number of years with great results.

For a number of reasons, I have an inexpensive flip phone instead of a smartphone.  I’m an IT Consultant by profession, so this may surprise many of you.  I prefer the cheap flip phone because it is small, lightweight, durable and I don’t worry if it’s damaged when I take it skiing or mountain biking.  But, when I’m working I do like to know if an email comes in and I like to be able to read it on my phone.  This is where texting comes in.  Each cell provider has an email address that is associated with your phone number.  For instance, the email address for verizon wireless is your 10 digit number@vtext.com.  Check with your provider for your email address.

Now, set up your email application to forward your email to your cellphone text address.  I set my email to also keep a copy in my inbox.  That’s all there is to it!   If I’m not near a computer so I can respond to the email, I simply call the person.  With many email applications you can also set filters to determine which emails get forwarded to you.  For instance, I’ve set up all my clients, my wife and a few other addresses to be forwarded to me via text, but nothing else.  This insures that only the emails I want to get are forwarded to me.  Keep in mind, if you don’t have an unlimited texting plan on your cellphone, you will be charged from each incoming message.  Try it out and let me know what you think!