Can You Text 911? See If Your City Supports 911 Texting [2024]

With the prominence of texting in society, one question that garners thousands of searches per month is “Can you text 911?”

After all, SMS is so prominently used across the US and texting is often more convenient and accessible than trying to make a phone call. And in an emergency situation, texting may be your best option for getting in touch with the help that you need.

We’ll answer the question of whether you can text 911 in this brief article.

(You can check out the chart at the bottom of the article to see if your city supports texting 911.)

Can You Text 911?

Yes, you can text 911 in many counties across the United States. However, most counties have not yet implemented support for this emergency service, so you’ll need to check with your local dispatcher or consult this regularly updated spreadsheet from the FCC in order to determine whether texting 911 is supported in your area.

How Does Texting 911 Work?

Several years ago the FCC put forth an initiative to “require all wireless carriers and other providers of text messaging applications in the United States to deliver emergency texts to call centers that request them.”

Their report on the “text-to-911” initiative (including sign language interpretation) can be viewed here:

If your area supports texting 911, you can simply submit an SMS text message from your phone to the phone number 911. You will then be connected with emergency services.

However, it is recommended that you call 911 rather than text 911 if possible, since calling is still considered the best way to reach emergency services.

How Does It Work If Texting 911 Isn’t Supported in Your Area?

If “text-to-911” hasn’t been supported in your area, the FCC has required dispatchers to send a “bounce-back” auto-reply message so that you can know that your message hasn’t gone through.

That way, you can be informed so that you can contact emergency services through another means.

What is “Text-to-911” Meant For?

The “text-to-911” program is not meant to replace calling 911 but is rather meant for individuals who have hearing or speech disabilities, or for times in which you need emergency services but don’t have access to call 911.

Whenever possible, the FCC recommends calling 911 rather than texting when in need of emergency services, because voice calls tend to provide more information to dispatchers so that they can know where to send help.

And since text-to-911 is still not available in many places, in an emergency situation, you don’t want to waste precious time trying to engage in a communication system that may not be supported. So it’s best to know ahead of time if texting 911 is supported in your area before attempting to take advantage of it.

Can You Text 911 in Your Area?

Below is a list of states and cities in which you could text 911 as of September 5, 2023, listed alphabetically by city. (You can download the FCC’s official and regularly updated list here.)

If viewing this article on a computer, select Ctrl + F (for Windows) or Command + F (for Mac) on your keyboard to search the list below for your town or city to see if texting 911 is available in your area.