How to send SMS messages to mobiles from PC ?

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How to send SMS messages to mobiles from PC ?

Post by white exec »

Skype (now MS) have seemingly removed the facility to send SMS text messages to Contact List mobiles, despite one of their on-line pages saying this is possible (probably an old page). They've also managed to delete our Contacts and our Credit as part of the 'upgrade' from vn.7 to current vn.8. So not a happy bunny.

Does anyone know an alternative and easy-to-use package that allows SMS text to be sent from a Win7 PC to mobiles, without the need for bridging service-provider-of-recipient details to be inputted?
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Re: How to send SMS messages to mobiles from PC ?

Post by Gibbo2286 »

I didn't know you ever could do that, I looked into it years ago after my provider stopped free sms but couldn't at that time find a way and haven't bothered since, can't remember the last time I sent one. :)
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Re: How to send SMS messages to mobiles from PC ?

Post by GiveMeABreak »

Chris - I'm not sure this will meet your needs for a 'bridging service', but I use WhatsApp. It is free to send and encrypted end to end.
WhatsApp is available as an App on Android and Apple phones, but also has WhatsApp Desktop - once paired with your mobile, you can then:
Make Video Calls
Make Phone Calls
Send messages in real time (chat)
Send and receive pictures / videos or file attachments including PDFs in those messages from your PC or phone.
WhatsApp is also integrated into Opera web browser.
You can create your own contact list - all it needs is a mobile number with the WhatsApp App installed.

As for contacts - All you need is the phone number of the recipient with WhatsApp installed. There are no charges, regardless of where they are based.
The App is also free!

I don't think there is anything to rival this at present. I dumped Skype when they annoying dropped support for Smart TVs after we bought the cameras for the Samsung Smart TV. I raised a complaint and they provided a refund for those who had bought cameras - as they are dedicated Samsung plug and play and can't be used with a PC or other kit.

Never looked back since using WhatsApp and invaluable when helping out friends /some members with technical issues.

Edit: Forgot to mention it does need WiFi to work, or mobile data - so if you are both on home WiFi you don't even incur any mobile data usage.
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Re: How to send SMS messages to mobiles from PC ?

Post by Paul-R »

I didn't know that Skype had dropped texts. Thanks for that as I was going to suggest Skype as an alternative to whatever your problem was! When I think about it, it must be at least a couple of years since I fired it up on either my laptop or my phone. I'll have to see if my credit is still there!

If you're wanting to send texts to all sorts of phone numbers then I'm not sure what to suggest now.

If your contact list is small then +1 for WhatsApp. I've had it on my phone since they charged 89p per year, although I only paid once. And when they introduced Desktop I shifted over to that almost exclusively leaving my mobile phone to only act as a bridge. Although it's been a long since I compared quality with Skype, I would say their voice call quality is superior too. As I'm on PAYG I switch data on and then use WhatsApp rather than phoning directly. It ends up cheaper that way.
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Re: How to send SMS messages to mobiles from PC ?

Post by Richard_C »

Interesting question and I often wonder if I can send SMS without peering at a tiny phone keyboard.

Whatsapp is excellent and is the main way our family stay in touch these days, we have various 'groups' so you can send to one, some or all. It does depend on everyone having it installed so might not be suitable for more general use, works on android and ios but when I last had a windows OS phone there was no whatsapp. Messages encrypted but presumably it will be harvesting data on locations and contacts and suchlike. Worked fine on a long holiday to NZ, but found the app was blocked from Honk Kong, I guess China doesn't like encrypted messaging.

Not used skype for years despite having an onedrive/office 365 home account which has (used to have?) a free skype call allowance.
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Re: How to send SMS messages to mobiles from PC ?

Post by Paul-R »

Well, I fired up Skype on my laptop and the first thing I had to do was update it! My credit was inactivated in 2015 (!) due to lack of use but I could reactivate it without a problem. To reactivate I had to go to the web site and while I was there I found that you can still send SMS messages. It seems that the standalone program can't do it any more but you can do it through your browser - although I didn't follow that bit through.
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Re: How to send SMS messages to mobiles from PC ?

Post by white exec »

Panic over, and Skype SMS message sending now working again.

What happened was I migrated from old v7 to new v8, and signed in (as requested) using our e-mail address.
Turns out this was not the original sign-in ID, so Skype throws up an existing a/c (someone else's) under that name - ok so far - but allowed signing in using OUR password. What??? So much for MS security!

Now correctly signed in to our a/c, and all contacts and ability to send SMS have reappeared.

Plot left thickened somewhat by some Skype help pages which confirm that SMS messaging is no longer available.
:shock: :shock: :shock: #-o

Thanks, everyone, for all the helpful suggestions.
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Re: How to send SMS messages to mobiles from PC ?

Post by Homer »

GiveMeABreak wrote: 24 Jul 2018, 11:36 Chris - I'm not sure this will meet your needs for a 'bridging service', but I use WhatsApp. It is free to send and encrypted end to end.
WhatsApp
.....
I don't think there is anything to rival this at present.


Well there's Google Hangouts and Facebook Messenger, although they do not connect with a mobile number but then Whatsapp requires both parties to have the app installed anyway.

Google are also pushing RCS (Rich Communications Service) also known as "Chat" which works with the standard Android text app (but very few others) and allows you to send RCS messages from a desktop.

If you need SMS because recipients might not have smartphones or data and are willing to pay there are services like Textmagic which can send out single or bulk texts.
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Re: How to send SMS messages to mobiles from PC ?

Post by GiveMeABreak »

That's ok if you do Facebook - I don't and won't (although I appreciate WhatsApp is owned by them now). I have all the privacy options locked down, but if it ever gets too demanding I will dump it. :-D I'm quite happy using Apple's messaging, but only switched to Whatsapp for friends on Android as it works on both.
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