Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => Ctrl-Alt-Del => Topic started by: Sergeant Pluck on 22 December, 2017, 04:06:04 pm
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Is there a trustworthy app that can allow me to send SMS via my Android phone from my MacBook Air?
I used to have a couple of things that did this but I ditched them - privacy and security concerns - and they might have been for Windows, it was years ago.
Feels wrong to need to use a phone to text when there is a laptop right here. Presumably this wouldn’t be an issue if I had an iPhone.
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The pulse SMS app has a, subscription, option to sync and send messages from a browser or app on a computer
https://messenger.klinkerapps.com/overview/
I use the android app which is very nice, I've not tried the paid extension. As I understand it the phone still sends the actual message.
Sent from my XT1562 using Tapatalk
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Indeed, if you got an iPhone, it all just works, I can SMS from messages and take calls via the computer. I assume there's something similar for Android.
Not helpful, I know, but I'm avoid doing any more work this afternoon and killing time before a final work call so I can go to the pub, so bear with me.
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As I understand it the phone still sends the actual message.
That’s a given - it’s really just the relative hassle of texting on a phone vs a proper keyboard.
The impression I am getting is that most options involve your SMS being uploaded to some website. That seems to be in excess of my needs. It’s not that I am texting anything of note, but I’d rather just have something that works locally if such a thing exists.
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If you use Whatsapp instead of SMS you could use their web interface, whatssppweb. I'm ussing it'll work on a Mac, but as it's just a web page I can't see why not.
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I feel as if I exceed some unwritten age limit to be a WhatsApp user.
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If you use Whatsapp instead of SMS you could use their web interface, whatssppweb. I'm ussing it'll work on a Mac, but as it's just a web page I can't see why not.
It does, but for some unknown reason it likes your phone to be somewhere in the vicinity and switched on.
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There's a whatsapp native app for Macs.
Also, something like Pushbullet will let you see any texts/messages you recieve on your phone and reply to them.
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Airmore is a good app for sending SMS's from a Mac. It's also my preferred way of transferring music to (and photos from) my Android phone.
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I feel as if I exceed some unwritten age limit to be a WhatsApp user.
Err ... WhatsApp is the new SMS.
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I feel as if I exceed some unwritten age limit to be a WhatsApp user.
Err ... WhatsApp is the new SMS.
Not really, it is part of the loss of the ubiquitous service that was common across carriers and it’s replacement by proprietary systems designed to tie users into one platform or another.
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Try Signal. It is a secure end to end SMS but integrates with the SMS backbone to allow non-secure messaging.
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If you use Whatsapp instead of SMS you could use their web interface, whatssppweb. I'm ussing it'll work on a Mac, but as it's just a web page I can't see why not.
It does, but for some unknown reason it likes your phone to be somewhere in the vicinity and switched on.
Whatsapp messages are encrypted by the sender with the public key of the person (if you're sending to a group then a copy is encrypted per person with their respective public key) you are contacting. The only thing that holds the private key to decrypt a message is on the recipient's phone.
The Whatsapp Web interface can't talk to Whatsapp's servers to get your messages because they're all encrypted (and Whatsapp does not have any way to decrypt them) and so the Whatsapp Web interface is actually talking to your phone (it's just using Whatsapp's servers to do this) in order to get access to your messages. That's why the phone has to be switched on. It doesn't have to be in the vicinity (it worked fine when I left my phone at home and I used the web interface at work, which I had previously set up.)
The QR code thing you scanned on the webpage when first using the whatsapp web interface is actually another encryption key so your phone can re-encrypt a copy of the messages so that only that webpage has access to the decrypted messages. All messages that pass through Whatsapp's servers are still always encrypted.
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The standard Android Messages app now lets you send messages from a web browser on your computer. Make sure you have the latest version of the app, then choose the menu in the top right, then "Messages for web".
Then go to https://messages.android.com/ on your computer, and scan the QR code on your phone.
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I have used various web version of android apps. What amazes me is the speed that it scans and links up. The phone barely focuses/scans/beeps the QR before the browser logs in.