Receiving Text Messages As Emails...Why?
Wings3496
Newbie

Hello all - 

 

My girlfriend and I both have iPhone 4's, and previously everything has worked perfectly with both our phones and plans.  However, in the last two days I've started to receive some but not all of her text messages as emails.  So instead of an incoming text, I'll have an email from "<mygirlfriendsnumber>@vzwpix.com".  She says that she isn't doing anything differently, and neither of us have changed our plans (unlimited text and data for both).  

 

I've done a bit of googling and didn't come up with anything, so I headed over here for an answer.  Any ideas?

Labels (1)
Tags (3)
0 Likes
Re: Receiving Text Messages As Emails...Why?
SuzyQ
Community Leader
Community Leader
Are the messages that come in as emails those with photos attached? Longer messages (greater than 160 characters?) I'm just shooting in the dark here, I have no idea why some would appear to be emails and others appear to be text.

Is she sending them from her phone, or from a website, or from a texting app?
0 Likes
Re: Receiving Text Messages As Emails...Why?
Wings3496
Newbie

No photos attached are attached to the emails, they are just plain text.  Nor are they longer than 160, they've all been fairly short (~1 sentence).  And she is sending them from her phone, as she usually does - no changes on her part or to our plans.

0 Likes
Re: Receiving Text Messages As Emails...Why?
SuzyQ
Community Leader
Community Leader
OK--more questions--I'm not sure what is going on here but the answers may trigger something in your mind or someone else's reading this....

Are the messages you get as an email ones your girlfriend initiated, or are they a reply to one you have sent her? Do all of yours go to her phone as text messages? I'm trying to find some common factor to the ones that you get as emails vs the ones you get as text messages...

Are either of you using a texting "app"?
0 Likes
Re: Receiving Text Messages As Emails...Why?
RTFM
Contributor - Level 1

You've said that she's sending the texts the same way she always has...but what is that? 

 

Here's a shot in the dark...Does she initiate texts by bring up your "contact" (probably one of her Favorites).  If so, it's pretty easy to accidentally choose your e-mail address instead of your phone number. 

 

SuzyQ asked if this just happens when she initiates the text, or also when she's replying to one of yours. If it happens only when she initiates the conversation, and if she starts with your contact record, then I'd have her be really careful to select your mobile # and not your e-mail address in the contact record.

 

(Sorry for the duplicate post...I swear I only hit "post" once. There seems to be an edit option, but no way to delete the duplicate.)

0 Likes
Re: Receiving Text Messages As Emails...Why?
RTFM
Contributor - Level 1

You've said that she's sending the texts the same way she always has...but what is that? 

 

Here's a shot in the dark...Does she initiate texts by bring up your "contact" (probably one of her Favorites).  If so, it's pretty easy to accidentally choose your e-mail address instead of your phone number. 

 

SuzyQ asked if this just happens when she initiates the text, or also when she's replying to one of yours. If it happens only when she initiates the conversation, and if she starts with your contact record, then I'd have her be really careful to select your mobile # and not your e-mail address in the contact record.

0 Likes
Re: Receiving Text Messages As Emails...Why?
Wings3496
Newbie

Answers to the questions asked - 

 

SuzyQ

1) "Initiated by gf or replies to my texts" - They've been both - but we both have iPhone4's, so texts between people are saved as a sort of ongoing conversation, in which every text is technically a reply to an older one.

2) "Do all of yours go to her phone as text messages?"  Yes, my texts seem to go through normally as texts to her phone.

3) "Are either of you using a texting "app"?  Nope, just the normal texting functionality on our phones.

 

RTFM

1) "...same way she always has...but what is that?"   We both have iPhone4's, so you simply hit "Messages" and then select the person you wish to send a message to, type it, and hit send.  The iPhone keeps all messages from each contact stored as sort of an ongoing conversation, with all previous texts available if you scroll up in the messages menu.

2) "...accidentally choose your e-mail address..."  Can't be this - as mentioned above, all text messaging is done through the "Messages" menus and are stored as ongoing text conversations you are replying to.  To send an email, she'd have to go to Contacts, then choose me, hit email, type it out in an email form, and hit send.  So there isn't an easy way to mixt the two.

 

Thank you both for your efforts so far, this problem has been stumping me as well.  Especially since the emails I recieve are not from her normal email address (as you'd expect if she were accidently mixing emails and texts), but are instead from "<hernumber>@vzwpix.com" - which was a seperate service (or email address) I thought you had to voluntarily use...and she says she hasn't done so.

 

 

0 Likes
Re: Receiving Text Messages As Emails...Why?
RTFM
Contributor - Level 1

 

OK...What we know is that she is sending a message (not an e-mail), but for some reason, it's being sent to your e-mail address. It's clear that she's not using the e-mail function, because that would come from her regular e-mail address, not <her number>@vzwpix.com.

 

It's easy to send a text message to an e-mail address. I do it sometimes when I want to send a quick message to one of my relatives who doesn't use text messaging.

 

So I did a couple of tests. I used messaging, not e-mail.  First, I sent a plain text message to my e-mail address.  It arrived as an e-mail from <mynumber>@vtext.com, which is different from what you're seeing. Then I sent another text message, but this time I attached a photo to it. This one also arrived as e-mail, but was from <mynumber>@vzwpix.com, which is what you've said you're seeing.

 

So I have no idea how she's doing it, but it appears that she's somehow occasionally sending an MMS message, but sending it to your e-mail address rather than your phone number.  My bet is still that when she selects the person to send the message to, that choice is somehow linked to your e-mail address rather than your phone number. Maybe she has two contact records for you, or once the original mistake was made, that message thread was linked to your e-mail address. So any time she adds to it, that's where it goes.  But without looking over her shoulder, there's no way to really know.

 

Check (or have her check) to see if there is more than one "conversation" in her messages for you. If there are two, then one of them probably links to your e-mail address. 

0 Likes