If you have ever been frustrated by a fax machine (like trying to find one or trying to make one work when it seems determined not to), we have good news: you never have to use one of those machines ever again. With a Google fax number service, you can simply use your Gmail account to send a fax whenever you need.

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Never Worry About a Machine Again: Use Google Fax Instead

What Is Google Fax?

Faxing with Google is simply sending and receiving faxes using your Gmail account. Google does not offer the service on its own, but all you need is a third-party online fax service, like aFax or RingCentral. 

How It Works

Sign Up for Service

The first step is to sign up for the service and follow the instructions to connect your new service to your Gmail account. If you only want to send one fax, you can do this for free or sign up for a free seven-day trial and then cancel it. If you need to send faxes regularly, consider getting a paid account. Even the most expensive accounts will usually pay for themselves easily when you consider how much office supply stores typically charge you per page. Plus, there's no waiting in line.

When you sign up, you will be given a local or toll-free number, whichever you prefer. Other people can also fax you to this number, and the faxes will arrive in your email inbox. 

Addressing Your Fax

Once you have your service connected to your Gmail account, you can send faxes very similarly to the way you email. First, pull up an ordinary new email screen. Then, take the fax number that you are sending to and put it in the TO area, followed by @-suffix. So, for example, if you're using RingCentral, you'll add @rcfax.com to the end of the number. If you're using aFax, it would be @onafax.com.

Suppose you are sending to a recipient whose fax number is (408) 525-4583. You'll need to remove all the special characters and just include the numbers followed by your suffix. The example just given would look like this: 4085254583@onafax.com.

Attaching the Fax Itself

When you send a fax using your email account, you will not put anything in the actual email area. You will compose your cover letter, if you want to include one, and put that entire cover letter in the subject line. Then, you will attach the documents that you want to send as faxes. You put nothing whatsoever into the actual email area.

Faxing Multiple People

A great feature of using these services is that you can fax as many numbers as you need at one time. Just add extra numbers in the CC box of your email. This is a huge time savings for those of us who remember standing forever at a fax machine, laboriously sending page after page to different recipients, one at a time.

The Service Delivers Your Fax

Your emailed document will go to a third-party fax service, and they will convert it from a digital to an analog file. They will then send this analog file over landlines to the recipient's fax number. It only takes a few moments for this to happen, and once it does, you will receive a confirmation email letting you know your fax has been sent and received.

Get Started Today

You can get started for free, so there's no reason not to sign up for an account now and try it out. Test Drive Our #1 Recommended Choice!

Matt Gerchow

Matt Gerchow is an author, marketer, inventor, husband, father and yoga enthusiast. He enjoys travel to distant lands , fine wine, time with his family and dinner with friends.