Get Your ERAS Interview Invite Emails Sent Directly to Your Phone

Published June 27, 2026 · 5 min read

Medical residency applicants have been asking this for years: is there a way to get ERAS interview invite emails sent directly to your phone so you don't miss one? The short answer is yes. But the method matters — because not all approaches give you the speed you actually need.

Why applicants want ERAS emails on their phone

ERAS doesn't have a native mobile app that pushes instant alerts to your phone. The portal requires you to log in, and email notifications from ERAS and scheduling platforms like Thalamus and InterviewBroker go to your regular inbox — competing with everything else in your life.

During interview season, many applicants are on rotations, in the hospital, or presenting to attendings when invites land. Your phone is in your pocket on silent, or locked in a locker. A notification that comes and goes silently is nearly the same as no notification at all.

The common methods — and their limits

Gmail filters and push notifications

The simplest approach: set up a Gmail filter for emails from ERAS, Thalamus, or "interview invitation" keywords, and make sure push notifications are enabled. This works when your phone is nearby and unlocked. It fails when you're scrubbed in, on rounds, or your phone is in a locker. A badge that appears while you're busy doesn't wake you up.

Email forwarding to SMS gateways

Some applicants use carrier SMS gateways (like @txt.att.net) to turn emails into text messages. These are unreliable, character-limited, and most carriers have throttled or deprecated them. You're not guaranteed delivery, and a truncated text may not tell you what program it's from.

Forwarding to a dedicated inbox

A popular workaround: create a separate Gmail account just for interview invites, forward your ERAS email there, and set loud notifications only for that inbox. This is better than nothing — but you're still relying on a push notification. If you don't hear it, you don't know.

The modern approach: a phone call

statmail was built for exactly this problem. You forward your ERAS email to your statmail address — a two-minute setup — and statmail monitors the inbox around the clock. When an interview invitation arrives from ERAS, Thalamus, InterviewBroker, or any other program, it calls your phone directly. Usually within about a minute.

A ringing phone is harder to miss than any notification badge. And if you're unavailable, you can add a backup number — a family member's phone — so someone always hears the call.

How to set it up

1. Create a statmail account and get your personal forwarding address.
2. In Gmail, go to Settings → Forwarding → Add a forwarding address → enter your statmail address.
3. Add your phone number in the statmail dashboard and run a test call to confirm everything works.

That's it. statmail watches from there. You don't need to check anything — if an invite arrives, your phone rings.