Things You Can Do With Email That You Are Unaware Of

We all have been using email services now from a very long time. But, what is the use of emails?

When emails first came into existence, their sole purpose was to exchange messages between two individuals. But as times changed, emails became more popular and are now able to broadcast messages. Number of features were applied and removed over the years. And today, email is the most common platform for exchanging information and for maintaining professional life. But do you know, that email have other features too that you might be unaware of?

Today, in this article, we will be looking at the features of email that one should use in case of emergency or when urgent. These features might make your life easier.

Starting Now!

1. Direct Text Messages from Email

Imagine when you are in a meeting and someone calls up, but you can’t answer your phone. What would you probably do?

You will try to text that person, but still the thing is you can’t use your phone. In this case, while in a meeting, you can SMS your loved ones through your email directly. How?

All you have to do is, open your email account, compose an email, where in the ‘To’ box, type 10-digit mobile number of the recipient followed by the gateway address of their respective carrier service. For example, if their service provider is Verizon, then you’d type ‘[email protected]’.

Then, type your text in the ‘Subject’ box and press ‘Send’. The recipient will receive a text message from your email address. This will allow you to send text messages directly from your email account in case of emergencies or when phone is not accessible to you.

2. Post Directly to Social Media

Popular platforms like WordPress and Facebook allow their users to post directly from their email accounts. In case you cannot log in to your Facebook account for some reason, you can update and post on your timeline through email. How?

There is usually a feature provided by every email service provider in their settings, from where you can turn on the additional settings for this purpose.

First you have to open your email account. Then compose an email, where in the ‘To’ box type your respective Facebook email address. for example, [email protected].

And just below it, in the ‘Subject’ box, type the status or message you want to upload to your timeline. You can even upload videos & photos from email account by attaching them in the respective mail.

File hosting websites like Flickr and Box, allow you to directly upload files from your email. This is similar to posting photos on Facebook by attaching it in an email. This way, you can send and upload files directly. For doing this you have to go to intended folder, right-click on it, go to More, than select Properties, and check ‘Allow uploads to this folder via email’.

3. Make A Video Call

With an add-on to direct messages, you can even make a video call to your friends & relatives from your email account.

If you are using Gmail as your email service provider, from within the email inbox, you can launch Google’s communication platform Google hangouts.

Now all you have to do is, select the name of a person you want to call, and now tap on the Video call icon, given at the top left of the window.

Microsoft Outlook also allows you to make video calls through Skype directly from your Outlook account.

4. Manage Your Smart Home

Now, this is something exclusive, we suppose you didn’t know. You can now manage your smart devices, which has an internet connectivity, just by your email account. How?

This is possible with the free web service, IFTTT that permits you to connect various devices, using applets.

First of all, you have to, create an applet. While creating an applet, it will ask you the question “If +this then that”. Click on ‘+this’ and add your email as a trigger.

Then once you set email as a trigger, press ‘+that’, here you will add the devices, which you want to control like WeMo Slow Cooker, or Philips Hue from your mail.

Now whenever you send an email to ‘[email protected]’, the device will execute the specific function to mentioned while creating an applet.

One should use these features to live a simpler and better life.

If you found this helpful, please let us know. You can also drop your feedback in the comment section below.