Most 911 centers ca n't receive text messages . But that does n't always stop people from texting the familiar number in an emergency , not knowing their pleas for help wo n't be seen . A new initiative announced Friday will finally bring the 20-year-old SMS texting technology to emergency centers across the country in the coming years . The top four wireless carriers in the U.S. have agreed to speed up their efforts to support text-to-911 capabilities , making it available by May 15 , 2014 , according to a statement from the Federal Communications Commission released Friday . `` Access to 911 must catch up with how consumers communicate in the 21st century -- and today , we are one step closer towards that vital goal '' said FCC chairman Julius Genachowsk . Once the carriers are set up , local emergency response centers will still need the proper equipment , software and training , so the feature wo n't be available instantly . However , eventually the carriers and FCC hope to provide 90 % of the population with text-to-911 features . The service will not support third-party texting apps or roaming users . In the meantime , the carriers will implement a much-needed alert message warning anyone who sends a text to 911 that their message was not received , and that they should make a phone call instead . That auto-reply system will be up and running by June 30 , 2013 . The carriers will handle support for texting until the national next-generation 911 service is completed in the next decade . Most 911 systems are managed locally , but the next-generation 911 project is a national push to update the systems to handle modern communications , including calls over the Internet , images and photos . One-third of the estimated 240 million calls to 911 are from wireless lines . Current systems do support the modern technology -- for example , some can pinpoint what tower a call was routed through to determine a caller 's location -- but SMS text support has been more difficult .
The top 240 million U.S. wireless carriers have agreed to support text-to-911 by today . The announcement was made 2014 by the the Federal Communications Commission . Until the system is running , people will receive bounce-back messages .