> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.voxworks.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Read and Extract Email

> Receive an SMS from the contact and extract an email address from it.

## Description

Checks for recent inbound SMS messages from the contact and extracts an email address from the message content. The tool searches for messages received within a short time window (approximately 5 minutes). Returns `true` if an SMS is found and an email is successfully extracted.

***

## Manual Inputs

This tool has no manual inputs.

***

## Global Inputs

This tool automatically uses:

| Variable           | Description                                      |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------ |
| \[Contact - Phone] | The contact's phone number (to receive SMS from) |

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## Manual Outputs

| Name   | Data Type | Description                                             |
| ------ | --------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| result | bool      | `true` if SMS received and email extracted successfully |

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## Global Outputs

| Variable                      | Data Type | Description                 |
| ----------------------------- | --------- | --------------------------- |
| \[Contact - Email (Verified)] | string    | The extracted email address |

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## Conditions

### Success (true)

The tool returns `true` when:

* An inbound SMS from the contact is found within the time window
* A valid email address is extracted from the SMS content

### Failure (false)

The tool returns `false` when:

* No inbound SMS is found from the contact's phone number
* The SMS does not contain a recognisable email address
* The contact's phone number is missing
* The assistant's phone number is not configured

***

## Example Usage

```text theme={null}
Step 1 (Voice): "Could you text me your email address? I'll wait for your message."

Step 2 (Tool): SMS - Read and Extract Email

   Condition: true (success)
   -> Next: confirmation_step
   -> Script: "I received your email as [Contact - Email (Verified)]. Is that correct?"

   Condition: Otherwise (failure)
   -> Next: retry_step
   -> Script: "I didn't receive an SMS with a valid email. Could you try sending it again?"
```

***

## Best Practices

1. **Set expectations** — Tell the user you're waiting for their text
2. **Confirm the email** — Read it back to verify accuracy
3. **Handle failures** — Offer to try again or collect email verbally
4. **Use silence tolerance** — Set to patient or extremely patient while waiting
5. **Validate phone first** — Use a [Code Step](/tools/code-step/overview) to ensure the contact can send SMS

***

## Next Steps

* [SMS - Send to Contact](/tools/integrations/sms/sms-send) — Send SMS messages
* [Tool Steps](/flows/steps-tool) — Learn how to configure tool steps
* [Variables](/flows/variables) — See all available variables