Telstra Desktop Messaging replacement providers compared
Telstra Desktop Messaging will be withdrawn for its remaining Enterprise customers on 9 November 2026, after small business customers lost it on 10 November 2025. Telstra's Desktop Messaging page names no replacement product. Of the providers this site reviews, 30 publish email to SMS, and 5 of them also publish MMS, replies, sending to an uploaded list and scheduled sends. The cheapest of those is Cellcast at 3.70c an SMS at 1,000 a month.
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Telstra Desktop Messaging features, provider by provider
Every provider here publishes email to SMS, the Desktop Messaging feature for sending from an email client, and every one takes replies. Tick the other features your team uses to keep only the providers that publish all of them.
30 of 30 providers shown.
Matches require published evidence for every selected feature. A hidden row may have missing evidence, which does not mean the feature is unavailable.
| Provider | SMS at 1,000 a month | MMS | Replies | Send to an uploaded list | Scheduled send | Recurring send | Email to SMS address |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texto | 3.00c | No | Yes | · | · | · | [mobile]@emailtosms.texto.com.au (0412345678, +61412345678 or 61412345678; comma-separate for several) |
| Mobile Message | 3.50c | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | {mobile}@sms.mobilemessage.com.au, number as 04xxxxxxxx or 614xxxxxxxx (e.g. 0400111222@sms.mobilemessage.com.au) |
| Cellcast | 3.70c | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | · | mobile-phone-number@sms.cellcast.com.au (e.g. 0400000000@sms.cellcast.com.au) |
| Guni SMS | 4.50c | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | {mobile}@sms.gunisms.com.au (e.g. 614XXXXXXXX@sms.gunisms.com.au) |
| Notifyre | 5.00c | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | · | {mobile number}@{accountid}.sms.notifyre.com (e.g. 61487799888@61FKQ4A1.sms.notifyre.com) |
| touchSMS | 5.00c | Yes | Yes | Yes | · | · | {mobile}@touchsms.email (e.g. 0410111111@touchsms.email) |
| 160.com.au | 6.70c | · | Yes | Yes | · | · | {mobile}@160.com.au (e.g. 0412345678@160.com.au); sms@160.com.au with numbers in the subject for M2M/IoT senders |
| Chatti | 6.90c | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | · |
| MessageWorks | 6.90c | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | · | mobile@e2s.messageworks.au with the mobile number(s) in the subject; other trigger addresses at [trigger]@e2s.messageworks.au (sendgroup, file, addgroup, contacts) |
| SMS Broadcast | 7.00c | · | Yes | Yes | Yes | · | Published patterns: number@e2s.smsbroadcast.com.au on the product page, and number or contact alias at @au.e2s.app.sinch.com in migrated Australian-region help. Confirm your own account's current gateway before sending. |
| ClickSend | 7.20c | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | mobile-phone-number@sms.clicksend.com (e.g. 0400000000@sms.clicksend.com) |
| SMS Express | 7.70c | Yes | Yes | · | · | · | · |
| Kudosity | 7.90c | Yes | Yes | · | Yes | · | 04XXXXXXXX@transmitsms.com or 614XXXXXXX@transmitsms.com |
| SMS Fusion | 7.90c | Yes | Yes | · | · | · | {phone number}@sms.smsfusion.com.au (e.g. 123456789@sms.smsfusion.com.au) |
| Bulk SMS Australia | 14.00c | Yes | Yes | · | · | · | · |
| CompleteSMS | · | · | Yes | · | · | · | Format 1 uses {mobile}@mail.completesms.net. Format 3 uses smsmail@mail.completesms.net with X-Cellphone recipient rows in the body. |
| Edgility | · | · | Yes | · | · | · | {mobile}@smsmail.com.au |
| Esendex | · | · | Yes | · | Yes | Yes | · |
| GoFax | · | · | Yes | · | · | · | {mobile}@sms.gofax.com.au |
| IntelliSMS | · | · | Yes | · | · | · | · |
| OneWaySMS | · | · | · | · | · | · | · |
| Optus | · | Yes | Yes | · | · | · | · |
| Sinch Engage | · | Yes | Yes | · | Yes | Yes | · |
| SMS Everyone | · | · | Yes | · | · | · | · |
| SMS Papa | · | · | Yes | · | · | · | Published instructions conflict between @smspapa.com.au, @smspapa.com and @160.com.au. Confirm the recipient domain with support before use. |
| SMSGlobal | · | Yes | Yes | · | Yes | Yes | · |
| Soprano Design | · | · | Yes | · | · | · | · |
| Tall Bob | · | Yes | Yes | · | · | · | · |
| TNZ Group | · | Yes | Yes | · | · | · | · |
| Whispir | · | · | Yes | · | · | · | · |
When Telstra Desktop Messaging ends
- 30 June 2025. Telstra Desktop Messaging stopped being available for purchase by new customers.
- 10 November 2025. The service was withdrawn for small business customers. Telstra's FAQ says a login that stopped working on 11 November 2025 was likely part of that small business tranche.
- 6 August 2026. Existing Enterprise customers could no longer add new services or make changes to existing ones.
- 9 November 2026. Telstra Desktop Messaging will be withdrawn from the market for Enterprise and no longer provided to any customer.
Telstra's Desktop Messaging page names no replacement product, and its pages for Telstra's SMS Access Manager and Messaging API did not mention the withdrawal when this site read them. Knowing the dates tells you when to move, but not what to move to.
What Telstra Desktop Messaging did
Telstra's FAQ describes Desktop Messaging as a service for sending SMS to mobiles from a web interface, from an email client and from applications integrated with its XML API. The product page adds that messages can be composed in the desktop application, through a plug-in to send from email, or in a web browser. Telstra's FAQ and product page list the features below.
- Sending from a web interface or the desktop application
- EmailSMS, sending from an email client
- MMS with a graphic image, video clip or audio clip
- Quick Contacts with individual contacts and groups, and synchronised Microsoft Outlook address books
- Message templates and mail merge
- Scheduled sends and recurring sends, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly
- Bulk Number Send, uploading a list of mobile numbers
- Replies to the sender's mobile, a company inbox or a personal inbox
- An XML API
A replacement has to cover the features your team actually used, not all of them. The next section shows which Australian providers publish which of those features.
Which providers match its features
30 providers this site reviews publish email to SMS, and every one of them takes replies. Of those, 16 publish MMS, 9 publish sending to an uploaded list, 12 publish scheduled sends and 6 publish recurring sends. 5 publish MMS, replies, uploaded lists and scheduled sends together: Cellcast, ClickSend, Chatti, MessageWorks and Guni SMS.
The cheapest of those is Cellcast at 3.70c an SMS at 1,000 a month. The cheapest email to SMS rate overall is 3.00c from Texto, so check the MMS and scheduling columns in the table on this page before choosing on price alone. A dot in the table means the provider's pages publish nothing on that feature, which is not the same as the provider saying no. Email to SMS is the feature that carried EmailSMS, and the section below shows how it works in the replacements.
How email to SMS replaces EmailSMS
EmailSMS was the Desktop Messaging feature for sending from an email client. Most of these providers take the mobile number in the address, at the provider's domain, and the email arrives as a text. MessageWorks instead takes an email to mobile@e2s.messageworks.au with the mobile number in the subject line. Three providers publish their address formats:
- ClickSend: 0400000000@sms.clicksend.com
- Cellcast: 0400000000@sms.cellcast.com.au
- touchSMS: 0410111111@touchsms.email
Two set-up points come up at most email to SMS providers. First, the sending email address must be authorised in the account: ClickSend uses "Allowed Addresses", and Notifyre emails a verification link that expires in 24 hours. Second, replies come back to the sender in some form: ClickSend returns inbound replies free to the inbox that sent the SMS, Guni SMS shows the last 5 SMS in the conversation in each reply email, and Notifyre forwards SMS replies to email once SMS reply email notifications are turned on. The steps below take your team through the move.
Moving from Telstra Desktop Messaging, step by step
- List what your team used. Work through the features above and note every scheduled or recurring message, because those stop with the service.
- Keep your contacts. Desktop Messaging synchronised with Microsoft Outlook address books, so contacts kept there stay in Outlook. Copy Quick Contacts groups and message templates you rely on before access ends.
- Choose a provider. Pick from the table on this page by the features your team ticked, then by its rate at your monthly volume.
- Upload your list. ClickSend's route is Contacts, add a list, Import Contacts, upload an Excel or CSV file and map its columns, then pick the list in a campaign.
- Authorise and test. Authorise every sending email address in the new account, then send a test to your own mobile and reply to it.
- Recreate your schedules. Set up every scheduled and recurring message again in the new account.
- Move the integrations. Anything that sent through Desktop Messaging's XML API moves to the new provider's SMS API.
Telstra's FAQ gives 1800 730 053 for Telstra Enterprise customers and 125 111 for others to cancel the service. The rules around your sender name carry over to whichever provider you pick.
Your sender name and the rules still apply
Since 1 July 2026 a sender ID not registered on the SMS Sender ID Register shows "Unverified" in place of the name, and the message is still delivered. A business name used through a new provider needs registering through that provider. The Spam Act 2003 covers a commercial SMS or MMS whichever provider sends it: consent, sender identification with accurate contact details, and a functional unsubscribe honoured within 5 working days. The obligations sit with the business that sends the message, and ACMA enforces them.
Frequently asked questions
Is Telstra Desktop Messaging being discontinued?
Yes. It stopped being available to new customers on 30 June 2025 and was withdrawn for small business customers on 10 November 2025. Enterprise customers could no longer add services or change existing ones from 6 August 2026. Telstra Desktop Messaging will be withdrawn from the market for Enterprise and no longer provided to any customer on 9 November 2026.
What replaces Telstra Desktop Messaging?
Telstra's Desktop Messaging page names no replacement product. Any provider that publishes email to SMS can take over sending from an email client. 5 of the providers this site reviews also publish MMS, replies, uploaded lists and scheduled sends, and the cheapest of those is Cellcast at 3.70c an SMS at 1,000 a month.
Can I keep sending texts from Outlook?
Yes. Any of the 30 email to SMS providers this site reviews can send from Outlook. At most of them you address the email to the mobile number at the provider's domain after authorising your sending address. How replies come back varies by provider, and ClickSend returns them to the inbox that sent the message.
How do I cancel Telstra Desktop Messaging?
Telstra's FAQ gives 1800 730 053 for Telstra Enterprise customers and 125 111 for everyone else. Call the number that matches your account and ask for the service to be cancelled. Do this after your team has moved its sending to a new provider, so nothing stops mid-move.