Can You Send a Fax Through Email?

The days of having a phone line installed for a fax machine (or worse, sharing a phone line with a fax machine) are long gone: even for home offices. While companies still prefer to fax official documents, you don’t need a fax machine of your own. All you need is a Gmail account to get started.

Can You Fax Directly From Email?

Simply put, no, you can’t fax with just your Gmail account. However, that’s all you need to get started. Email and fax machines operate over different signals: digital and analog. Due to the declining need for landlines in today’s technological landscape, there are now translator technologies that can take your emails and convert them into a transmission that fax machines can receive.

How to Do It

Setting Up Your Fax Through Email

There are several sources now that can provide you a digital fax number that associates with your Gmail account. Take RingCentral, for example, which is currently providing a free, 30-day trial. When you sign up, you have the option to choose the fax number that will correspond with your email address and work to translate your emails into faxes.

I’ve Chosen My Fax Number: What’s Next?

Once you’ve chosen your unique fax number through your translator site, like RingCentral, it’s as simple as opening your Gmail and composing an email. In the address section, provide the fax number of your intended recipient, followed by the domain with which you have registered your fax number. For example, send your email to 1234567891@rcfax.com.

After you’ve added your recipient, fill in your subject line. The subject line acts as a cover letter for your fax, so add all the information that you find necessary.

Once you’ve added your subject line, the body of the email is where you would input the information that you want to be faxed over. It’s truly that simple. After you’ve composed your fax, review everything you typed and send your email. The email will be redirected to the domain that is hosting your fax number, where it will be translated and redirected to the number that you put as your intended address.

Can I Send Attachments?

With RingCentral, you can attach a variety of attachments in your faxes. They typically support a variety of attachment types, giving you the flexibility to send whatever is necessary.

Can I Fax Through Email for Free?

While sites such as RingCentral do charge for their services, they also provide a free trial period. If you are consistently faxing, paying for a service like RingCentral is a much lower expense compared to running a unique landline along with purchasing and maintaining a fax machine. There are also free fax-through-email services, but they often allow only limited faxes per IP address and typically won’t receive incoming faxes.

If you’re looking for a consistent, reliable, and affordable option to send a fax through email, try RingCentral’s 30-day, free trial and see how well it works for you. It contains all the reliability of faxing without the hassle of purchasing the machine and setting up a landline.

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