In case you’re not familiar with the terms, text-to-email and email-to-text — as the names imply — allow for interoperability amongst email and texting services. An email address can be used to send a message that gets delivered as a text message and a text can be received as an email as well.
Some AT&T users have criticized the services as a hotbed for spam and it’s not uncommon for customers to request deactivation for both features. Nevertheless it is still quite a useful tool that a lot of people make use of every day but AT&T is shutting it down without any major announcements.
Until now it seems that AT&T customers haven’t received a notification about the impending shutdown. The company should probably rectify that, in my opinion, because otherwise many of its customers will be sent scrambling come June 17. There has also been no explanation for why these services are being shut down.
Perhaps, similar to Samsung’s rationale for removing Bluetooth from the S-Pen, AT&T realized that not many people use email-to-text or text-to-email.
Image credit — PhoneArena
A2P messaging solutions are a good alternative — letting businesses handle customer communication at large scales — but they won’t suffice for individuals. As far as I can tell if you used email-to-text and text-to-email then you’re now out of luck and should start making preparations.
If you really need to continue using this service then you might be able to find a program that can convert emails to texts and vice versa. We might even see some new solutions hit the market if there’s demand for it. Though I’d wager that not many people are going to miss these services in the long run.
