Send SMS Alerts Directly from Outlook

No. Microsoft retired Outlook Mobile Service, the legacy feature that converted Outlook emails to SMS. Modern Outlook desktop, Outlook on the web, and the Outlook mobile app have no built-in SMS sender. To send SMS from Outlook, the inbox needs a connection to an email-to-SMS gateway like TextBolt. Address an email to +1[phone]@sendemailtotext.com and the message arrives as an SMS from your business number.

After Microsoft retired Outlook Mobile Service, businesses used carrier email-to-SMS gateways (vtext.com, txt.att.net, tmomail.net) as a workaround. Those gateways have now shut down too: AT&T’s txt.att.net retired June 2025, T-Mobile’s tmomail.net went offline December 2024, and Verizon’s vtext.com shutdown completes by March 2027. TextBolt is the direct replacement: same email-driven mental model, but messages route through a registered 10DLC business number with up to 98% delivery rate and complete audit trails.

Sign up for TextBolt and complete onboarding (TextBolt handles 10DLC business verification with The Campaign Registry on your behalf). Once your number is approved, address any Outlook message to +1[phone]@sendemailtotext.com. The email becomes an SMS. There is no Power Automate flow to build, no Twilio account to bill, no integration code to maintain, and no webhook endpoint to monitor. If your team can send an Outlook email, your team can send an SMS.

Yes. TextBolt registers your sender identity with The Campaign Registry as part of onboarding so SMS sent from Outlook through TextBolt routes through carrier-approved 10DLC infrastructure. This satisfies FCC business SMS requirements and avoids the spam-folder filtering that hit unregistered carrier-gateway traffic. TextBolt is not HIPAA compliant; healthcare prospects with PHI requirements should contact sales for Enterprise options.

Yes. When the recipient replies to a TextBolt-sent SMS, the reply arrives as an email in the Outlook inbox of whoever sent the original message, threaded with the outgoing message when possible. Replies route reliably regardless of carrier, unlike the old gateway flows where some carriers used do-not-reply addresses or dropped replies entirely. No Power Automate webhook required.

Yes. Standard plan ($49/month) and Professional plan ($99/month) include multi-user access for up to 10 team members on a shared TextBolt account. IT admins, on-call engineers, sales reps, finance analysts, and dispatchers in your Microsoft 365 tenant all send SMS from their own Outlook using the same business number. There are no per-user fees inside the 10-seat cap. Enterprise plans support custom team sizes for larger organizations.

Yes. The TextBolt gateway address works from any Outlook surface: Outlook desktop (Windows or Mac), Outlook on the web, and the Outlook mobile app. The same applies to Outlook accounts inside Microsoft 365 commercial, education, and government tenants, as well as Outlook.com personal accounts. The recipient phone gets the same SMS regardless of which Outlook surface sent it.

Power Automate plus Twilio is a build-it-yourself integration. You need Power Automate Premium licensing, a Twilio account with API keys, a separate webhook flow for inbound replies (the Twilio connector has no listener trigger), and per-seat Twilio licensing for the team. TextBolt is a gateway, not a developer platform. Your Microsoft 365 stack emails the gateway and the email becomes an SMS. Replies come back to Outlook automatically. No flow to maintain, no integration code, no licensing stack to assemble.

Basic plan starts at $29/month for 500 SMS credits and a single user. Standard plan is $49/month for 1,000 credits with multi-user access for up to 10 team members on a shared account. Professional plan is $99/month for 2,500 credits with the same 10-user shared access. Enterprise plans cover 5,000+ credits with custom team sizes. There is a one-time $20 setup fee for the toll-free business number. Annual plans include a 20% discount.

About 30 minutes of hands-on configuration: account creation and toll-free business number selection, plus 24-48 hours for 10DLC business verification before your number goes live. You provide your legal business name, EIN, website, and SMS use case during onboarding, and TextBolt files the registration with The Campaign Registry on your behalf, since the FCC requires every US business SMS sender to be registered. Once carriers approve your number, your team can send their first SMS from Outlook in seconds. No Power Automate flow to author, no IT-admin training session.