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Why type out text messages at your smartphone when you’re at a laptop or desktop PC with a full-size keyboards? These tricks allow you to send text messages directly from your PC.
Even if you don’t have access to cellular service you can use some of these tools to send SMS messages directly to a phone number. You don’t even need a mobile phone on your end.
Messages for iPhones – Mac Only
Google Assistant is a powerful voice assistant platform that I personally use every day on my phone and my Google Home. Among other things, I use Assistant to turn on my music, change the. GrowlVoice - Google Voice Client for Mac is sometimes referred to as 'GrowlVoice'. This program was developed to work on Mac OS X 10.6 or later. GrowlVoice is an intuitive and fully-featured Google Voice client that brings the power of Google Voice to your Mac's menu bar. VoiceMac is the first Google Voice client for the Mac. Send multiple SMS Messages, send SMS Messages, receive SMS Messages, place calls, look at your call history, receive voicemail, reverse lookup a phone number, and search your contact list in one easy interface. Speak the words that you want your Mac to type. Dictation learns the characteristics of your voice and adapts to your accent, so the more you use it, the better it understands you. If it doesn't understand you, learn what to do.
RELATED:How to Make Macs and iOS Devices Work Together Seamlessly with Continuity
If you have both an iPhone and a Mac, Apple makes this possible. You need both — there’s no way to do this with an iPhone and a Windows PC. The built-in SMS-message-sending feature on a Mac only works if you partner it with an iPhone, too — not if you have an Android phone.
This is part of the “Continuity” feature added in Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite. You’ll need to enable it on your iPhone by opening the Settings app, tapping Messages, and activating Text Message Forwarding to your Mac. It should then work automatically if you’re using the same Apple ID to log into both your iPhone and your Mac. Open the Messages app on your Mac and you’ll see a synced history of text messages from your iPhone, too. You can reply from your Mac or send entirely new messages from the Messages app. Those text messages will be synced to your iPhone, too.
This doesn’t cost anything extra — it just uses your iPhone’s text-messaging service. If your cellular carrier charges you for texts, you’ll have to pay that fee for the messages you send.
MightyText for Android Phones
RELATED:How to Send Text Messages From Your PC With Your Android Phone
if you have an Android phone, the best way to do this is MightyText. MightyText is an app you install on your Android phone. You can then sign into the MightyText web app in a web browser on your computer — any computer, whether it’s running Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, or Chrome OS — and you can view and send your phone’s text messages from there. Browser extensions are also available. The AirDroid app for Android also does this and works well.
Like Messages on a Mac, this works entirely through your phone — your computer just becomes a gateway to your phone, which does the hard work of actually sending and receiving those text messages.
This won’t cost you anything extra. If your cellular carrier charges you for text messages, you’ll have to pay their fee.
Google Voice – US Only
RELATED:8 Reasons You Should Be Using Google Voice (If You’re American)
Google Voice is still around, but it’s also still only available to people based in the USA. If you are based in the USA, you can sign up for Google Voice for free. Google Voice gives you a new phone number, which you could use as your primary phone number if you like — although it’s unclear how long Google Voice will continue to be a service supported by Google.
Sign into the Google Voice website and you can send and receive text messages at that phone number. You can also have calls and text messages sent to that phone number be automatically forwarded to your primary phone number.
Sending text messages and placing phone calls to numbers in the US and Canada is completely free with Google Voice. You’ll have to pay Google to send text messages elsewhere.
Skype
Skype offers the ability to send text messages from the Skype desktop app. Unlike Google Voice, this is available worldwide. However, Microsoft does charge for this service, so you’ll have to pay to send text messages from Skype.
Pay for credit and you can send and receive text messages directly from Skype. However, these won’t sync with the text-message app on your smartphone. People won’t be able to respond directly to these messages, but you can set up sender ID to have the messages displayed as coming from your mobile number. if you do, people who respond will be texting you on your phone — but those messages won’t appear in the Skype app for desktop.
Email-to-SMS Gateways
Google Voice Desktop Client
Many cellular carriers offer email-to-SMS gateways you can use. Send an email to the phone number at this gateway and it will be delivered to the address. You will need to know the carrier associated with the phone number to send an SMS message in this way.
For example, let’s say a person’s phone number is 1-123-456-7890 and that’s a T-Mobile phone number. You could send an an email to [email protected]. Search for “email to SMS gateways” to find lists of gateways for different cellular service providers. For example, this email-to-SMS gateway list includes different email address for many different cellular carriers around the world.
Be sure to keep your message short — under 160 characters.
There are also a variety of websites you can use to send text messages for free. These aren’t for carrying on ongoing conversations — they’re just for sending a quick, one-off message to a phone number.
Such websites don’t always seem the most trustworthy and may ask for an email address before you continue, perhaps to send you spam. These are really only ideal as a last resort.
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This app is only available on the App Store for iOS devices.
Description
Google Voice gives you a phone number for calling, text messaging, and voicemail. It works on smartphones and computers, and syncs across your devices so you can use the app in the office, at home, or on the go.
NOTE: Google Voice only works for personal Google Accounts in the US and G Suite accounts in select markets. Text messaging is not supported in all markets.
You’re in control
Get spam filtered automatically and block numbers you don’t want to hear from. Manage your time with personalized settings for forwarding calls, text messages, and voicemail.
Backed up and searchable
Calls, text messages, and voicemails are stored and backed up to make it easy for you to search your history.
Manage messages across devices
Send and receive individual and group SMS messages from all your devices
Your voicemail, transcribed
Google Voice provides advanced voicemail transcriptions that you can read in the app and/or have sent to your email.
Save on international calling
Make international calls at competitive rates without paying extra for international minutes with your mobile carrier
Keep in mind:
• Google Voice is currently only available in the US. Google Voice for G Suite users is available in select countries. Check with your administrator for access.
• Calls made using Google Voice for iPhone can be placed through a Google Voice access number. All access number based calls use the standard minutes from your cell phone plan and may incur costs (e.g. when traveling internationally).
NOTE: Google Voice only works for personal Google Accounts in the US and G Suite accounts in select markets. Text messaging is not supported in all markets.
You’re in control
Get spam filtered automatically and block numbers you don’t want to hear from. Manage your time with personalized settings for forwarding calls, text messages, and voicemail.
Backed up and searchable
Calls, text messages, and voicemails are stored and backed up to make it easy for you to search your history.
Manage messages across devices
Send and receive individual and group SMS messages from all your devices
Your voicemail, transcribed
Google Voice provides advanced voicemail transcriptions that you can read in the app and/or have sent to your email.
Save on international calling
Make international calls at competitive rates without paying extra for international minutes with your mobile carrier
Keep in mind:
• Google Voice is currently only available in the US. Google Voice for G Suite users is available in select countries. Check with your administrator for access.
• Calls made using Google Voice for iPhone can be placed through a Google Voice access number. All access number based calls use the standard minutes from your cell phone plan and may incur costs (e.g. when traveling internationally).
What’s New
Ratings and Reviews
12.1K Ratings
Google Voice
Google Ruined It !! Now It's Back !!
Free Vpn Client For Mac
The latest version has some nice improvements but added some other issues. I like the ability to send photos and use emojis. I don’t like that it no longer recalls and suggests the numbers that you have sent texts to. Because I don’t link my iPhone contacts to it, If I delete a text string I now have to look up the number to start a new one. It should suggest numbers that have been used even if the archives are deleted and allow us to delete a suggestion we no longer need. The opposite is true for phone calls. It not only archives the phone numbers of calls you make but there is no way I have found to remove them from the archive. If these two issues were resolved I would rate it 5 stars.
I'm updating my previous negative review to a positive 5 stars. Defects have been corrected and it is easier and more reliable to use. I especially like the ability to easily and permanently delete conversation and call history. Thank you Google !!
Totally non functional for texts. Used the prior version all the time now there is no way to send a txt because the '>' that used to be there to send is missing. Also, after you enter the destination number you cannot get back to the message without starting over. This is a total train wreck. (Using iPhone 6s with latest iOS update).
I'm updating my previous negative review to a positive 5 stars. Defects have been corrected and it is easier and more reliable to use. I especially like the ability to easily and permanently delete conversation and call history. Thank you Google !!
Totally non functional for texts. Used the prior version all the time now there is no way to send a txt because the '>' that used to be there to send is missing. Also, after you enter the destination number you cannot get back to the message without starting over. This is a total train wreck. (Using iPhone 6s with latest iOS update).
![Voice Voice](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126024047/881715447.png)
Active Client For Mac
Major bugs
I’ve used GV for years. Ian using this app on an iPhone 6 with latest iOS. The current version contains two major bugs that currently make this a three star app. 1) when texting photos, an occasional photo will perpetually stay in “sending”mode and remain at the bottom of the conversation. Sometimes it is multiple photos that are stuck and you have to scroll up to get to the latest message in your exchange with a particular person. This issue can be present in multiple text conversations and every time you send or receive a text from that person, the picture or pictures are the first thing you see, even if they were sent a month ago. There is NO WAY TO DELETE THEM. The only way to fix this is to delete the entire app and reinstall it.
2) The text box where you compose your text message frequently is missing no matter who you try to text. The only way to fix this is to exit the app and open it again.
These bugs are quite annoying. Granted, it’s not that difficult to to exit and reopen the app to fix issue #2 but the frequency that this needs to be done is a bit much. Deleting and reinstalling the app multiple times to fix issue #1 has gone way beyond being just a minor annoyance. I’m hoping these issues are fixed soon.
2) The text box where you compose your text message frequently is missing no matter who you try to text. The only way to fix this is to exit the app and open it again.
These bugs are quite annoying. Granted, it’s not that difficult to to exit and reopen the app to fix issue #2 but the frequency that this needs to be done is a bit much. Deleting and reinstalling the app multiple times to fix issue #1 has gone way beyond being just a minor annoyance. I’m hoping these issues are fixed soon.
Google Voice Desktop App Mac
Crashes regularly, many bugs
I have been using this app for 1.5 years because I love the concept of a free way to text message and receive calls, but the app itself is the worst app on my phone. It crashes several times a week. When replying from the lock screen, it often does not actually send the message but doesn’t let you know it failed. I cannot send or receive video messages. A new message notification may pop up, but then when opening the app it may be super delayed in appearing. I regularly click on one text message and it opens a different one. 90% of the time if someone calls me, we can’t hear each other and I have to hang up and call them through a different app. I have to forward my calls instead, which works well. I have to use Google Hangouts to make free calls, because using the app either doesn’t work or uses my cell line that costs money. There are a couple of pictures I tried to send once and failed, but the app still shows them as pending months later and there is no way to delete them without deleting the whole conversation...so I have to scroll through them every time to see the latest message. Google obviously does not care to invest hardly any money or time in improving Google Voice. If I knew of a reputable and more reliable free phone and text service, I would use it instead.
Information
Requires iOS 11.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
English, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Hong Kong), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
Supports
Family Sharing
With Family Sharing set up, up to six family members can use this app.