A little-known trick for communicating is sending a text message to an email address. Cell carriers will deliver that message to the email account from the phone. Plus, when the recipient replies, it will be delivered back to the sender’s phone! This can help close communication gaps with families without reliable internet access but who carry cell phones.
Each cell carrier has a different email address, so start by getting the parent (or student) to contact you first. This can be the tricky part, to get the parent to send you the message first.
Sending a Message
Each phone is different, but the process is the same. To send a message, open the texting app and start a new message. Instead of using a phone number, type in an email address.
The message from the phone can be short or long…it will come through to the recipient’s email address.
When you reply to that message it will be delivered in the text string the parent started. Try to keep it concise because some carriers will cut the message off if it gets too long. Also, delete any quoted text in your response to keep the message simple.
This isn’t a perfect solution, but it can help increase communication between yourself and parents who don’t have reliable internet or email addresses you can check.
I tested this and my “text” ended up in my Junk folder
Hm, that doesn’t sound right…it’s not something we saw when we were playing with the idea, anyways. If you mark the message as “Not spam” in Gmail and try again, does it still go to spam?