Get Your Text Messaging Email Address. You may not know it, but text messages can be sent to a cell phone or PDA by e-mail. To do this, you first need to determine the email address for that phone or PDA. This is a necessary step if you want to receive txtAlerts as a text message. The first part of the email address is the phone number with area code (without spaces or dashes). The second part is based on the company providing the cell phone service: (IMAGE) Example: The phone number (555) 123-4567 on an AT&T cell phone would be entered as 5551234567@txt.att.net. Some cell phone plans include free text messaging, while others charge fees. Check with your cell phone provider to see what plan you have.