The ability to quickly send and receive text messages anywhere is not a luxury anymore. It has become one of the most basic requirements in the day to day life.
But sometimes, although you may have your mobile phone with you, it just won’t cut it. Or else it might be difficult to use the phone while working on your PC. In such instances, you feel the need to send SMS from PC directly without touching your phone.
Thankfully, there are some solutions for that. Here I have compiled the 4 easiest ways to send text messages right on your PC.
1. Your Phone – Windows App
If you are on Windows 10, you might have noticed a pre-installed app named Your Phone.
This is by far the easiest solution considering the usability, compatibility, and the fact the vast majority of PC users are on Windows.
Simply go to your start menu and find the app Your Phone and open it. Then open the Google Play Store / AppStore on your mobile and download the Your Phone Companion app.
If it is your first time opening the app on a PC, it will guide you through the process of linking your phone with the PC. It works with both Android and iOS devices so no worries. However, your Android phone needs to be running Android 8.0 Oreo or a later version.
Once the setup and sync are complete, you can view and send messages right on your PC. It also gives you access to the photos on your phone, but that is for viewing only. You cannot send them.
2. Chrome Extension – Send Your Email to SMS
You are most likely to use chrome to read this article. If so head here to download this chrome extension on PC.
Once downloaded, open Gmail inside chrome and click on ‘compose’ to start writing a new email.
There you will see a small phone icon right next to the ‘send’ button.
Click on that icon and it will ask you for the phone number to send the text message to. Enter the recipient’s number and click send.
This extension however is quite limited in terms of the message capacity. You are only allowed to send 10 messages per month for free. More than that, you have to subscribe to their paid plans which start at $55 a month.
Anyway, I can see this service as a great way for a small business to keep in touch with their customers, but not for the use of an individual.
3. SMS Text Sync Services
The way these apps or services work is, they sync the text messages in your mobile phone with their client app or web interface so you can access them outside on a PC or other device.
It might sound like too much of a hassle but trust me it is not once you get used to it.
There are several of these services but I will only list 2 of them which I have personally tried. You can visit their respective websites by clicking on the names below.
Pushbullet:
This is one handy service that allows you not only to send and receive messages across your devices but also it can mirror all your notifications among many devices.
So if you are looking to respond to your notifications as well as messages from your mobile phone on a PC, this might be the solution.
MightyText:
This is the service I currently use across my devices. They have a limit of 500 messages per month which is more than other similar services. Also, I find this less cluttered and easier to use.
You have to install their client app on all mobile devices you plan to sync messages. Then you can install either their desktop application or the chrome extension which will give you access to the messages from the linked mobile devices.
I have not reached their monthly limit of 500 yet but if you do, they are fairly cheap above that limit at $5 a month.
4. Free Websites
Last but not least, there are a few websites that allow you to send SMS messages right from their web interface. Needless to say, these are not suitable for everyday use and are heavily limited in functionality.
One such website is GlobFone. It provides a simple interface just enough to send a text message. You are limited to text-only messages and the recipient cannot reply to you.
Another service I found is TxtDrop. This works similar to the above-mentioned service but here the recipient can reply back. The reply messages will be sent to your email.
The listed are the ways I have tried to achieve the goal of sending text messages from a PC. Some solutions I have mentioned are of course going to be better than others but there is no harm in knowing what is what and their capabilities,
If you use anything other than these, I would like to try them and provide a review as well. Let me know in the comments section.
