If you constantly work on a computer and want to stay on that same
computer with as few interruptions as possible. The biggest interruption
possible is to completely switch devices, which is something a lot of
people end up having to do if they’re in the middle of an
SMS
conversation with a friend. This dramatically inhibits your
productivity, and it can get downright annoying when you’re sending 50+
SMS messages back and forth.
Ideally, you should be able to see and send text messages directly
from your computer, without even having to touch your phone. Lucky for
you, if you’re on Android, there are a handful of great tools which can
do exactly this, whether you’re using Windows, Linux, or a Mac. If
you’re on iOS, there’s really only one possible option for you.
If you’re in the US you can also use
Google Voice. This
solution won’t use the phone number that’s associated with your phone,
but rather the phone number which was given to your Google Voice
account.
When you first install the mobile app, it should set you up for the
Google Voice features, if you don’t have them already, or simply connect
to them if you already do. This is a fairly easy process, but beware
that Google Voice will try to replace your wireless carrier’s voicemail
with its own. You can skip this part if you’re not interested in that.
This solution is only ideal for people who actually use their Google
Voice number and other Google Voice features. Because all of the SMS
messages are stored on Google’s servers in Google Voice, you can use
your phone, tablet, computer, or any other device to check all of your
SMS messages and reply to them. Additionally, MMS messaging doesn’t
work with Google Voice.
The best part about this solution is that you don’t need to have your
phone on the Internet, or even turned on for that matter. You can just
have your computer turned on to send SMS messages just fine. This is
because any calls or SMS messages sent to your Google Voice number will
first be received by Google, where it will either store your SMS
messages or forward phone calls to your actual phone number.
Therefore, SMS messages received via your Google Voice number are
stored on Google’s servers rather than your own phone, and you can use
the Google Voice Android/iOS app or web app to access them.
Send & Check Messages From:
- any browser via the web app
- any Android or iOS device with the Google Voice app
MightyText is the all-in-one package for Android phone, that does everything we could possibly want from this sort of application.
MightyText consists of two parts — essentially what can be considered
the server and the client. The “server” is the app you install on your
phone, as it’ll receive text messages from the other configured devices
and send them out through your cellular network, as well as send texts
you’ve received from your cellular network to those other devices. The
“client” is the app you use on other devices to send out text messages.
From a computer, you can use the web application, and from a tablet
there’s an app for that too. The server and client communicate with each
other through a MightyText login which is based around your Google
account — similarly to how you can sign into some services using your
Facebook.
It’s really simple to set up, simple to use, and it works
really well.
All you need is an Internet connection for both the phone and the
PC/tablet. For the phone, both Wi-Fi and mobile data work just fine.
MightyText also comes with a Chrome extension, support for sending texts from Gmail via the
Gtext extension, a power view where you can see multiple conversations at once, call notifications, and phone battery alerts.
Send & Check Messages From:
- Android tablets via an app
- Chrome extension or third-party Firefox add-on
- any browser via the web app
Last but not least, Another fantastic choice for Android phone users is
AirDroid. Similarly
to MightyText, AirDroid connects with your phone via an app that is
installed on your phone and a web application. Once you have it set up,
you get a very nice interface that can do a number of things with your
phone — including text messaging.
Your phone and computer can easily be set up by launching the app on
both devices and then simply following the instructions. The only
downside to AirDroid is that both devices must be on the same WiFi
network.
AirDroid is less convenient than MightyText, but it still works very
well and can be great for those who enjoy AirDroid’s other features.
Conclusion
These three solutions are all great choices if you want to be able to
view and send SMS messages directly from your computer. Again, we
prefer MightyText the most, but each solution has a different setup and
feature list, which may work better for you. Try them all out and see
what you like! However, it’s sad that all of these solutions besides
Google Voice are Android only.
Do you send SMS messages from your computer? Which solution do you use? Let me know in the comments!
