Email to SMS for UK businesses
Three ways to join your inbox to a real UK number: a gateway address that turns an email into a text, inbox rules that raise an SMS on their own, and inbound texts you answer by replying to an email.
From £4/mo. No contracts. Cancel anytime.
Three ways email and SMS connect
Most gateways do one of these. Line does all three on the same number, so you pick the one that suits the job instead of the one your provider supports.
Send a text by sending an email
Every account gets a gateway domain. Put the mobile number in front of it, write the message in the body, and press send. Line converts the email and delivers it from your UK number. It works from Outlook and Gmail, and it works just as well from a CRM, a booking system, a monitoring alert or a script — anything that can send an email can now send a text.
New email
Let the right email raise a text
Forward a mailbox to Line and write rules over what lands in it. Match the sender, the subject, the body or the mailbox itself, then choose who gets told — one number, an on-call rota, or the whole team. Add conditions for the time of day, your business hours or who is free, so the same email reaches a different person at 9pm than it does at 9am.
Inbox rule
Answer a text without leaving your inbox
Texts sent to your Line number arrive as email, with the sender's number and the conversation so far. Reply to that email and the customer gets your words as a text from the same number. Nobody installs anything, nobody learns a new app, and the whole exchange still appears in the shared inbox for the rest of the team.
Inbox
From: +44 7700 900123 via Line
Can you push my appointment to Friday?
Done — you’re booked for Friday at 2pm.
Send your first email to SMS in 3 steps
No developer, no SMTP relay to configure. If you can send an email, you are already finished.
Claim your gateway domain
Your account comes with a gateway domain such as sms.yourcompany.com. Anyone you allow can send through it; anyone you do not is rejected.
Address the number, write the message
Put the mobile number in front of the domain — 447700900123@sms.yourcompany.com — and type the text in the email body. The subject is ignored.
Line sends it from your UK number
The email becomes an SMS in seconds. The delivery receipt returns to the address that sent it, and any reply lands in your inbox.
Sending from your own software instead? The SMS API takes the same messages over HTTP.
SMS is the default. It is not the limit.
The workflow builder sits between the trigger and the message. Pick what starts the flow, add conditions for the time, your hours or who is available, then choose how the message goes out — and to whom.
SMS
The default. Sent from your UK number, with delivery receipts and replies threaded back to you.
Send a free-form reply inside the service window, or an approved template outside it. Same conversation, richer format.
Phone call
Ring a person or a group, forward to an external number, or hand the caller to the AI voice agent.
Mail a verified address with the message details merged in — useful for an audit trail alongside the text.
Any HTTPS API
Call an external endpoint from the workflow. That covers Telegram, Slack, a webhook into your own service, or your CRM.
Several at once
A branch can do more than one thing: text the customer, WhatsApp the engineer and email the office in the same run.
Build it once in the workflow builder, publish it, and every matching message follows the same path.
What people use it for
Email is the one interface every system already has. That makes it the shortest route from the software you run to the phone in a customer’s pocket.
Send from the tools you already run
Your CRM, booking system or ERP can send email. Point its notifications at the gateway and the same reminders arrive as texts.
Escalate the emails that matter
A failed payment, a supplier delay, a form submission from a big account. The rule reads the email and texts the person on call.
Answer customers without a new app
Staff who live in Outlook keep living in Outlook. Inbound texts arrive as email; their reply goes back as a text.
Automate without writing code
Zapier, Make and n8n all send email. That is enough to trigger an SMS, and the workflow builder covers the rest.
What comes with it
One account covers the gateway, the rules and the inbox. There is no separate gateway contract to sign.
Line vs a traditional email to SMS gateway
Gateway providers were built for enterprise IT teams sending one-way alerts. Line was built for a small team that has to hold the conversation afterwards.
Self-service, not a sales cycle
Traditional gateway providers want a sales call, a contract and a developer to configure an SMTP relay. You sign up online, get your gateway domain and send the first text the same afternoon.
A number customers can answer
Most gateways deliver from a shared short code or an unroutable sender ID, so the conversation ends when your message lands. Line sends from a UK number the customer can reply to, save and call.
Rules and channels, not just a relay
A relay does one thing: email in, SMS out. Line puts a workflow between the two, so the same trigger can check the time, check who is free, and finish on SMS, WhatsApp, a call or an API request.
Every route lands in one inbox
Gateway sends, inbox rules and inbound texts all write to the same shared inbox. The team sees one thread per customer instead of a mailbox on one screen and a messaging app on another.
Email to SMS FAQ
Common questions about joining email and text messaging.
How do I send an SMS via email?
Compose an email in any client. Put the recipient's mobile number in the To field in front of your gateway domain — for example 447700900123@sms.yourcompany.com — and write the message in the body. Line strips the address, converts the body and delivers it as an SMS from your UK number within seconds. There is no plugin, add-in or extension to install.
What is an email to SMS gateway?
An email to SMS gateway receives an email and turns it into a text message. The recipient's phone number is encoded in the email address, so any system that can send email can send an SMS without an API integration. Line includes a gateway on every account, with a dedicated UK number rather than a shared short code.
Can an incoming email trigger a text automatically?
Yes. Forward a mailbox to Line and write a rule over what arrives. Conditions can match the sender, the subject, the body or the mailbox itself, and the action sends an SMS to whoever you choose — one number, an on-call rota or the whole team. You can add time-of-day, business-hours and team-availability conditions so out-of-hours mail reaches a different person.
Can I reply to a text from my email inbox?
Yes. An inbound SMS to your Line number arrives as an email showing the sender's number and the thread so far. Reply to that email and the customer receives your reply as a text from the same number. Your colleagues see the whole exchange in the shared inbox at the same time.
Does the message have to go out as SMS?
No. SMS is the default, not the limit. The same rules can send WhatsApp, place or forward a phone call, send an email, or call any HTTPS API — which covers Telegram, Slack and your own services. One branch can use several channels at once, so you can text the customer and WhatsApp the engineer in a single run.
Can I send SMS from Outlook or Gmail?
Yes. The gateway works with any email client, including Outlook, Gmail and Apple Mail, because it is a plain email to a special address. It also works from anything else that sends email: a CRM, a booking system, an e-commerce platform, a monitoring tool or a script.
Is there a free email to SMS service in the UK?
Free services use shared numbers, add advertising to your message or cap the volume. Line uses a dedicated UK number with no message caps and no contract. There is no free tier, but the entry plan costs less than a coffee each month and texts are charged at standard UK rates.
How does the pricing work?
A monthly subscription covers your UK number and the inbox. Outbound texts are charged per message segment at standard UK rates. There is no setup fee, no minimum spend and no enterprise contract. The pricing page shows every plan and the current per-message rate.
Put your inbox and your number together
Get a real UK number, a gateway address and a shared inbox. Send the first text from Outlook or Gmail in under five minutes.
- Real UK mobile, national or local number
- Gateway address for email to SMS
- Inbox rules that send a text on their own
- Inbound texts delivered to your inbox
- Reply by email, the customer gets a text
- WhatsApp, calls and API actions in the same rules
- Delivery receipts on every message
- No contracts or minimum spend
From £4/mo. Prices exclude VAT. Full pricing
Also available: SMS to email forwarding · Workflow automations · Shared inbox · Pricing