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You can. Most (all?) cell providers have what's called an email-to-SMS service. It will receive an email, convert it to a text message, then send it to your phone. If you Google your cell provider and "email to sms", you should be able to find out how their email-to-SMS addresses are set up (ie. [phonenumber]@[provider].com, etc.). Then you need to create new notifications on Geocaching.com and use that address as the "email" address. You are right! Went to the Wikipedia page and it told me how to it easily and now I have the text SMS notifications all set up now! Thank You!!

You can. Most (all?) cell providers have what's called an email-to-SMS service. It will receive an email, convert it to a text message, then send it to your phone. If you Google your cell provider and "email to sms", you should be able to find out how their email-to-SMS addresses are set up (ie. [phonenumber]@[provider].com, etc.). Then you need to create new notifications on Geocaching.com and use that address as the "email" address.

as long as someone makes too hard puzzles, and as long as someone else really want to solve them, but cant, there will be people trying to : work together to solve it, share how to, share solutions, share finals.. how they do this, can be a million ways, email, sms, phonecall, face to face, at events, at puzzle solver meetings, at facebook you name it.. the only way to stop it, is to stop making rediculus hard to solve puzzles, they waste our time anyway, geocaching is supposed to be an outdoor sport, not an indoor braniac club for IQ play clever folks.

>I'm 13 and I love geocaching after accidentally coming across a geocache on a walk, I left it there! HAHA, this is soooo cool.. Dont you just love when a youngster pop up the the forum, in perfect English, nice and friendly and polite :-) to young lady bushwacker you are allready way ahead of many of the oldies who use this forum. (you know what I mean), be welcome to use the forum as much as you want, just compleetly ignore any negative and foolish reply, and newer reply back to anyone in private, and if anyone ever write to you in private, no matter what and who, always show it to your parents, and NEWER EVER EVER meet up alone with anyone at all for a nice time geocaching !!! only together with your parents !! and THEY handle the arrangements, this go for ANY online service or forum or email or facebook or sms. our oldes daughter is 14, she is online all the time and have alot of fun with it, but we do monitor it a little bit, and she is perfectly ok with that.

I have them sent as mms message to my phone to avoid the sms limit. I have Sprint, but doing a little googling I found that for Verizon it is 10digitnumber@vzwpix.com. If you change the email address for the notifications to that (replacing 10digitnumber with your phone number) then it might work better. On my phone this makes even the links to the web page functional.

I just did some Googling, and it looks like Vtext is the name of the Verizon email-to-SMS service. Their site, as well as several others, say that it's limited to 160 characters. I think the OP is out of luck unless they change providers like you suggested. 160 characters is the limit for ALL SMS text messages. Many newer phones will split longer messages into as many SMS messages as necessary to deliver the long message. Depending on the receiving hardware the multiple message will either be rejoined or displayed as standalone messages. Most internet to SMS services truncate long messages to the allowed 160 characters. This has little to do with whom the provider is.

I just did some Googling, and it looks like Vtext is the name of the Verizon email-to-SMS service. Their site, as well as several others, say that it's limited to 160 characters. I think the OP is out of luck unless they change providers like you suggested.

If you use gmail (or possible other email services), then the free app Boxcar can effectively give you this. What you do is create a filter in gmail (on the web page) that when you receive an email that matches whatever criteria you want, you forward the email to a special boxcar email address. Then the boxcar app can be set to give a unique alert sound for the matching emails. I use this to do that for messages from my family and I keep meaning to set up one for geocaching alerts but I haven't done it yet. It's a little klunky how it works, but it does the trick. I do hope that iOS 6 has this feature though and we don't need anything like Boxcar to do it for us. For me, I set up an alias email for my geocaching account, which forwards email to my personal inbox, as well as mobile email through Rogers. So, while I never read the email that goes instantly to my phone, the alert I receive contains the sender's email address. If the sender is noreply@geocaching.com I know it's a GC-related email. From noreply@Groundspeak.com means a newsletter or forum notification. Either way, as soon as I get that alert, I open up my mail app and download the new email - instant instant email notification The way I see it, any other service you employ will still have somewhat of a notification lag. The SMS notification of new email to my phone is as fast as it'll come, as it comes straight from Rogers on my plan. After I know there's an incoming email, I can just check it manually if I'm free to do so. It would of course be nice if the instant email notification would include more than just the sender's email address, but that's sufficient for the way I use it.

The trackable method is great for showing general cache-to-cache travels. I have two trackables that I am using the way you describe; one is a patch on my pack that I have dipped in every cache I have done: Frink Labs - Travelling Cacher Geopatch The other is a FTF geocoin that I was lucky enough to get as a FTF prize recently; I have dipped it in all the FTFs I have: Frink Labs FTFs - Signal FTF Micro Geocoin What I actually wanted was the iPhone to give me detailed maps that look like this: Bark Lake or Bust Geocache Everytrail Map (note that this was captured with my Etrex which is why it still worked when we were swimming away from GZ in the lake rather than endure the bushwhacking return trip) And so I followed this advice, which was excellent and gave me exactly what I asked for: Thank you thebruce0! The 'droid at the "Genius Bar" suggested that the version 6 of IOS might have this feature and that its release is allegedly in the Fall of 2012 so I will hold out for that solution; failing that, I will try the app method. I hesitate to do so because I am pretty sure you have to forward mail to their servers and/or give them your email username/password and my company's email confidentiality might be compromised. In a perfect world, Groundspeak would offer an SMS notification method but that'd be expensive I bet.

You've got me a bit confused. The above quote seems to conflict with the topic title. If you only use one email address (and later said you didn't want to have any more email addresses), where are you wanting these emails directed? Do you mean you switched your notifications to send to an email-to-sms address (ie. have it send you text messages)? If so, I can almost guarantee that will be slower than using push email. If you have a data plan for your phone, and your email provider has "push" as an option, that will be far faster than having an email go through an additional server to be converted to a text message. I may be wrong, but that's how I read your post.

True. I agree with my own esteemed reviewer, and Starbrand. However, there is an extremely little known way to have coordinates (and some basic cache information) texted to you as outlined on the Coord.info textmark page under the "Looking up a Geocache" section. All you need is the GC number of the cache. This is all basically part of field notes on Geocaching.com, not related to the email to SMS gateway you are using to get text messages sent to your phone when a new cache is published.

I'm currently set up to receive e-mail notifications when a new cache is published within 35 miles. I'm trying to get set up to also receive text messages. I've already gone to Account Details - Manage e-mail addresses and added the correct email-to-SMS address (I know it's correct because I tried sending to it from my work e-mail and received the text right away, no problem). The address showed up under my e-mail addresses in Account Details and its status is "Unvalidated". The instructions said that once I added this address I would receive a text message asking me to validate it, but I have never received it. I also tried to Resend Validation Request, that didn't do anything either. So am I missing a step here? Anyone have any advice on how to resolve this? Thanks

I'm trying to set up instant notifications via email-to-sms on my O2 iPhone 3GS, using http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=184 as my guide. I went to the page they suggested for the email addresses associated, but the O2 one didn't give any result, and I've tried several others I've found online. None of them have sent a test sms through, has anyone set this up on O2 already who could give me some pointers?

Hi, just for information, I wanted to post a reply in case other Nokia phone gps users were looking for the same info. My husband figured it out, with the help of Nokia support forums. It is actually very simple, the Nokia Ovi maps application that gives you free worldwide maps has everything you need. The search function allows you to enter the co-ords directly. For Ovi Maps versions 3.03 and later, coordinates can be entered directly into the search bar as follows DD MM SS.SSS n DD MM SS.SSS w Because the navteq maps are downloaded onto your phone, beforehand it finds the spot offline. You can then navigate to it, turn by turn, voice prompts with street names, whatever voice skin you want any language like a good gps will do. You can also save the searched location for later, give it a new name, add it to a route, or share it with a friens via sms or email. So with a bit of homework before you go out, you can search and save the caches to your phone, then when you head out and you look at the map, your saved favourites will all show on the map, and then you just select it and press walk to, or drive to. The above is all entered manually, which is a bit time consuming. I have read that there is a way to import the cache info, but once the .gpx file is downloaded you would have to convert it to .lmx, as far as I could see, but then how to get the file in as your favourites in the map software is still not known to me. Typing it in manually and saving the cache in your favourites, is not hard, and we tried a few caches and it took us right there. Incidentally I found that typing the co-ords in as DD MM.MMM n DD MM.MMM w also works. So if you have a Nokia phone with a built in gps, it works quite well for a beginner cache hunter. I bought this Nokia X7 in brand new condition for $120 on kijiji.ca So for that money I have a good gps, with free maps of everywhere, 4inch amoled touch screen, 8mp camera, we can play games, surf web, great music player, unlimited memory because I can add micro sd memory card, 32gb each. This sure beats a Garmin Etrex or any other gps you can get for that money. Oh, and when I put a sim card in its a phone too. No wifi or 3G needed.

I created an email alias I use for gc.com, and that forwards emails to my personal email account and my phone's email service. So while I don't get full email content in SMS messages, I at least get a new email notification from Rogers, including the sender address (so I know if it's from geocaching.com, Groundspeak.com, etc). If you're a good programmer, you could set up a script that could send you a txt msg after checking and parsing any incoming emails automatically but that's a bit of work... at least with this notification method, I know to open my email app and check for new email. Now, different providers may send different email notification content, so I'd say just play around with it, see if you can get email to your phone - that should happen immediately.

Here's something non-intuitive, but it will work with most providers.. Use the SMS app on your phone to send a message to your regular email address (such as Gmail). When you open that email, the "from" will then show the address you want to send notifications to.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread: but does anyone in the UK know if Orange actually still offer this (email-to-SMS) service? I have set things up on Groundspeak.com using the instructions as given here, but didn't receive the verification email. A search through the Orange website didn't come up with anything; there's an area to set up an @orange.net email address but when I tried this (thinking I may need to set something up at the Orange end too) it told me that "the alias is not correct". I dread speaking to their callcentre! I do have and use (and cache with) a smartphone which has email capability, but for reasons of battery conservation, 3G data usage when away from wireless and speed, I have it set to only pick up emails when I ask it to. So I rather like the idea of getting a notification by text which I can then follow through.

So here is my problem...It has been going on for several months now. I am not receiving my sms/text notifications to my Tmobile phone. They were working fine for several months, but suddenly I stopped receiving them. I went in and deleted my email contacts. I re-verified them. I added a 1 in front of the number. I have my actual email address as my primary, and set up seperate notifications to go to my phone. I made sure those notifications were pointed at my phone. I went in and deleted the 1 in front of the number. Re-verified. Made sure the notifications are pointed at my phone. It seemed to work for about 3 cache publications, but now they aren't working again. I am getting the notifications to my email, but I don't want the newsletter, and watchlist notifications going to my phone. HELP!!! I miss the FTF parties!!!

According to this list, the address should be "number@tmomail.net (MMS or SMS) --number can and by default properly begins with "1" (the US country code)". Also, if you want to test to see if you've got the right address, just try sending an email to it. Anyway, that isn't what this topic is about. This topic addresses the issue of people correctly receiving notification emails, but some emails never being generated in the first place by the site.

I've been doing exactly what you want for 6-7 years and have never had a problem. Pretty much everybody I know does the same thing without a problem. What email addresses show up here: http://www.geocaching.com/account/ManageEmailAddresses.aspx Make sure that ONLY your regular email address is listed. For your notifies, look at each instanotify listed here: http://www.geocaching.com/notify/default.aspx and make sure that only your phone's SMS/MMS email address is listed. Is it possible that you have some sort of forwarding set up on your email server to send emails from Groundspeak to your phone? This really sounds like it's a set up issue with you; I've never heard of people having problems setting this up properly.

Notifications only work with email addresses. Those that are getting them in text message form are using a conversion process provided by their cell provider called email-to-SMS which converts the emails into texts. If you want them sent to your email address, then you can certainly do so. You can follow the instructions listed here.

Good point. I also get emails because the texts don't have a url in them.... Usually, the text alerts me to check the email. I check the email, click the url for the cache on my phone, and viola. I've never had a case where I got a text and there was no email, so what you say is likely true... that texts come in later. Thanks for the info. A few years ago I developed a subscription based bulk email application that distributes reports produced by a well known U.S. government agency. I manages hundreds of distribution lists and sends out hundreds of different reports a day with thousands of subscribers. A few of the reports have over 10,000 subscribers. I don't know how GS does it but my app builds the list of email addresses ordered by the numerical ID for each user (those that subscribed earlier are near the beginning of the list). Because the number of email addresses is large I break it up into "batches" (500 in each batch) and use a mechanism called multi-threading to launch multiple processes simultaneously to deliver the messages. Even with a distribution list with thousands of subscribers the process of constructing the list and sending the email takes only a few seconds. That doesn't mean that that subscribers will all receive a copy of the email message within seconds. Each SMTP server which accepts the email may be configured differently. In some cases it may run every 15 minutes to deliver (copy the message into the users inbox) messages it has received. If there is a smtp to sms gateway in place that may also queue messages for delivery. I did some testing one where I send a message to three different email addresses and checked the time when each one was received. One came in almost immediately, and one took almost a half an hour. I have my GS notifications tied to a gmail account. Awhile back I posted a owner maintenance log on a cache I own and got a copy of the message in my gmail account *before* the response web page rendered. Long story short, the number of people in your area that have notifications set up for new caches is probably pretty low and the order in which your email address appears on the list is likely not going to make a difference. The amount of time it takes to send the notification is minimal. The bottleneck is at the server which receives the message and stuffs into your inbox (which can be set up to forward the message as a text message).

I suspect the reason why it took longer to get to you was because it had to be converted from an email to a text, then sent to you. That conversion process would be done by your cell provider's email-to-SMS function, and likely introduces a delay. I've been with other cachers when a new cache comes out, and we all got email notifications within a few seconds of each other. I believe the emails are sent out at virtually the same time, and any difference in when cachers receive it is due to the email provider they're using. Another reason why that cacher might have gotten there faster could be that they were on the road in the area when it came out. I've had this happen before. I was over 30 km from home, much farther than I would normally be able to get a FTF. A cache just happened to be published 800m away. I got there within a couple of minutes. I know some cachers that have been parked meters away from a cache when it got published.

Interesting - that is great to know and I am sure that using this method and the MNT method will be useful for all those who do not have a smart phone and who wish to have that competitive advantage of knowing when a new cache comes in! If any one has other tips on leveraging notifications on non-smart phones keep the tips coming. Sharing is caring! Nice one - I have just registered at vodacom and sent my self a test email and it took about a minute to arrive as an sms on my phone. So there you go vodacom subscribers now all you need to do is set your Groundspeak notifications to be sent to you cellnumber@voda.co.za address and you will be notified by sms - you will not dout not see much detail but at least then you can get to a pc and check your email. So I woudl recommend you use gmail or other webmail account that has filters so you can get the message on your phone and on your email. Just remember the forwarding will not work well with offline clients such as thunderbird and outlook as this will be dependent on your pc being on with the client running and actively polling for new mail. If you have a desktop pc you alwasy leave on no problem. Trev

I use a similar setup with Vodacom, where my email is 082xxxxxxx@vodamail.co.za and it sends me an SMS whenever I get a new email to that account, I am only aware of missing a new notification once.