Ya’ just never know when and where you’ll bump into a new geek toy! I unexpectedly learned of one the most cool tools in a longtime from an Alaskan group on Facebook (I grew up in Anchorage). An early childhood friend replied into my unrelated post and that led to a circuitous route to web-based text messaging for Android-based phones. The story gets better in that folks I have now told of this “best kept secret”
haven’t heard of it and, more importantly, think its cool too!
The steps are simple; the implications are humungous!
Step 1. Use a desktop/laptop browser to visit https://messages.android.com
Step 2: Use your Android-based mobile phone to point at the QR code from the Messages drop down menu by selecting “Messages for web” from the drop down menu. See Figure 1.
Step 3: Your Android-based mobile phone and your PC are now married. EOM!
Figure 1: It all starts here.
The implications for this are amazing and I’m sure you will think of ways to enhance my observations.
Ease of use. Nothing like a full keyboard to manage your texting. Seriously.
Boss Button. Wanna text on the clock? Using this web-based texting solution will fool everyone. Look like you are working overtime while your mind is on vacation.
No coverage. Enjoy the benefits of texting when you’re in dead zones such as the outback. It appears that there is a dependency whereby your mobile phone either needs to be connected to a “cellular” signal or WiFi.
International travel. Similar to above – I’d offer this cool tool is a great way to be in “texting touch” while across the pond. Place your phone in airplane mode, connect to a WiFi network (as per above) and text away without roaming-style charges.
Contests. With the full PC browser experience, you could engage in one of those offer and incentives things like text YAY to your mobile phone number and you can then better manage the flood of responses. I realize there are third-party tools that do a better job of this but try this approach for giggles.
Storage. I’ve also seen the copy-and-paste magic of a full size PC-based browser to save conversations. I have a couple business partners who are text first and it’s annoying in that I can’t memorize the conversations as a CRM entry, etc. This is one way to do it.
Give it a shot. Let me know what you think. Now you know what I know.