SMS to Email
SMS-to-Email is an inbound-SMS delivery mode that forwards every text message received on a virtual phone number to one or more configured email addresses. The forwarded message arrives as a standard MIME email within 1-3 seconds, with sender, recipient DID, timestamp, and MMS attachments preserved.
How it works
An inbound SMS arrives at the terminating carrier (DIDHub or upstream). The forwarding service decodes the SMS body (handling GSM-7, UCS-2, and Latin-1 encodings transparently), packages it into a MIME email with X-DIDHub-* headers carrying sender and message metadata, and delivers to the configured recipient(s).
MMS attachments are inlined as multipart MIME parts on email clients that support them. On text-only clients the images appear as signed CDN URLs in the body, expiring after 7 days. Multi-recipient fan-out (up to 10 addresses per DID) is supported for shared sales / support inboxes.
Email format
The forwarded email looks like:
From: SMS <sms@didhub.io> To: support@yourcompany.com Subject: SMS from +1 415 555 0123 (US) X-DIDHub-To: +14155550123 X-DIDHub-From: +14155554567 X-DIDHub-MessageID: msg_a4f9c2b1 X-DIDHub-Country: US Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Hi, I'm looking to port 12 numbers from Twilio.
The Reply-To header points to a non-functional placeholder by default, so accidental email replies don't bounce back to the SMS sender. Email-to-SMS reply mode is opt-in (charged per outbound SMS).
When to use it
- Low-volume support inboxes — team monitors a shared mailbox; SMS is just another channel.
- 2FA/OTP capture — verification codes from third-party services delivered to an inbox the team watches.
- Sales reply tracking — campaign-specific DIDs forward replies to attribution-tagged emails.
- Sole-trader sideline numbers — client texts go to a personal inbox without installing another app.
- Email-to-ticket pipelines — Zendesk, Freshdesk, Help Scout, Intercom auto-import the forwarded email as a ticket.
When to use a webhook instead
Email forwarding is one-way (or constrained two-way via opt-in reply mode). For real-time conversations, AI auto-responders, structured CRM integration, programmatic routing rules, or anything that needs sub-second response times, use SMS-to-webhook instead. The two modes can be combined — configure both, and every inbound SMS fans out to email AND webhook in parallel.
Pricing
Inbound SMS forwarding (including email delivery, MMS handling, signed-URL hosting, multi-recipient fan-out, retry queue, and bounce tracking) is included in the monthly DID rental on every DIDHub number. There are no per-message charges for receiving SMS in any country.
For a deeper walkthrough see the SMS-to-Email landing page.
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