

E-mail anyone via their phone number - atte
http://www.thinbox.com

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djt
My main concern would be spam. At the moment I get telemarketing calls on my
mobile, but with this people could spam me through my phone number. You might
want to mention to people how you combat that when you send your opt in SMS

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yownie
If I have their phone number why can't I just call/txt them and ask for their
email address?

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DanBC
Bob is sending bulk email to a list of contacts, some of them are email
addresses and some of them are phone numbers. Calling texting each phone
number to get an email address is an extra step that Bob doesn't want to take.

I'm guessing.

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BeanSeller
How on earth do you get people's email addresses? My initial instinct is that
your are just farming phone numbers...

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atte
If they aren't registered, we send them a text message asking for them to
reply with their phone number. Any e-mails thereafter to
[YOUR_NUMBER]@thinbox.com are automatically forwarded.

Thanks for the feedback though. Admittedly, we could have put more time into
the landing page.

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evoxed
Make sure you make it easy to cancel, e.g. instructions in the first text for
how to block your number from the registry. People who do not have a texting
plan in favor of iMessage, Skype, etc. but do not block all incoming texts by
default will thank you. I got a text like this recently from AIM mobile-
something-or other from some weird spammy address. The second message
contained instructions on how to block any future requests, but afaik I'm
going to see all the messages that were sent in the meantime on my bill at
$.10/ea– I'm glad I wasn't roaming, since the price essentially triples.

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RyJones
The STOP command is mandated. I hope these guys get someone that actually
knows how SMS works from the legal side.

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atte
Ultimately, our plan for Thinbox is that the number mapping will be connected
to more information than just an e-mail address.

A path we're considering that might have some more obvious use cases: a
mapping of phone numbers -> mailing addresses. That way in your mobile
postcard app, you can choose a friend to mail a card to, even if you don't
have their mailing address in your phone. The first-time recipient would
automatically get a text message along the lines of: "Steve would like to send
you something. What is your mailing address?"

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timeshifter
You do know that this has been standard functionality on all the US carriers
for years anyway, right? There is absolutely nothing useful about this
service. One quick Google search can get you the specific domain to email to
for any carrier. They all follow the same format, [number]@carrier.com. This
service is about 5 years behind the times. I've been emailing to SMS since
before the iPhone.

~~~
atte
For sending text messages that is correct. It may not be clear enough that the
purpose of e-mailing a [NUMBER]@thinbox.com address is not to send an SMS to
someone's phone. The initial SMS is just a way to ASK for the recipient's
e-mail address and create a mapping that works for future e-mails. So
essentially it just couples two separate types of "addresses" for a person
into a single address.

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sbacheld
Also, after your number is coupled with an e-mail address, you will not
receive any more SMS messages. E-mails sent to [NUMBER]@thinbox.com will
automatically be sent to the e-mail address provided

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b0o
My biggest concern is seeing an "email" where my text messages. I get text
messages all the time, and they're usually pretty high on my list of important
messages because I know that 100% of my text messages are definitely not spam
and that i should at least read them. Using email to send me a text only makes
me think i got spam and i'll just delete the message, i probably won't even
read it.

But really, why email their number when you can just message them for their
email (or using gvoice or something similar)?

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minouye
Can you explain why someone would want this? I'm not sure I've ever been in
this situation before (only have someone's phone number but want to email
them).

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vlokshin
I think they may be on to something here. It simply means you can have one
source (contact detail) to reach out into many. It may not even be a pertinent
MVP for every individual, but the linkage, and potential with a bit of
creative thought behind it, is pretty cool.

Full disclosure: I know / am good friends with the original post author /
creator of ThinBox, but that had no influence on my comment.

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emeraldd
So, does this actually do anything? I've tried twice and not seen anything on
the phone end . . . .

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Firehed
Blocked the email-to-SMS gateway at your carrier? I did that years ago since I
don't pay for unlimited SMS (which I consider a massive scam) and don't want
to get dinged because I get charged for inbound (also a massive scam, thanks
US carriers).

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davewasthere
You get charged for inbound?

I've had mobiles in some 15+ countries and that's the first I've heard of
being charged for inbound texts. Definitely a rip!

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Firehed
Yes - all major US carries do this as far as I know. AT&T and Verizon for sure
(unless you pay $30/month for unlimited SMS)

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atte
I really appreciate any feedback. This is an early stage version, but I wanted
to get it out there and see what people had to say before taking it too far in
one direction.

Also note: Thinbox only works with U.S. phone number at this time.

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waldr
Interesting approach to cross service contact. We've taken a different tact
with our app - <http://tray.io>.

Interested to see how it develops!

