Forwarding Text Messages to Email

[Orlando Enrique Fiol]

Hi all. Now that Sprint has ended Google Voice integration, I'm looking for a
way to continue having text messages forwarded to email, as I used to do with
Google Voice. My reason is that I'm totally blind from birth, work all day on
my desktop or laptop and don't want to keep my phone on all day just to await
text messages.
I have perused Google Voice forums and its help documentation, Sprint's
announcements about the end of Google Voice integration, as well as numerous
web forums, all to no avail. Can anyone help?


Orlando Enrique Fiol
Ph.D. Candidate in Music Theory
University of Pennsylvania
Professional Pianist/Keyboardist, Percussionist and Pedagogue
Email: of...@verizon.net

[nospam]

In article <MPG.35891aa11...@news.albasani.net>, Orlando

Enrique Fiol <of...@verizon.net> wrote:

> Hi all. Now that Sprint has ended Google Voice integration, I'm looking for a
> way to continue having text messages forwarded to email, as I used to do with
> Google Voice. My reason is that I'm totally blind from birth, work all day on
> my desktop or laptop and don't want to keep my phone on all day just to await
> text messages.
> I have perused Google Voice forums and its help documentation, Sprint's
> announcements about the end of Google Voice integration, as well as numerous
> web forums, all to no avail. Can anyone help?

many voip providers offer sms forwarding to email.

[VanguardLH]

How about working the other way? Instead of having Spring forward to
your Google Voice number, why not dole out your Google Voice number as
your only number (or tell your callers you have changed phone numbers
and give them your Google Voice number) and have Google Voice forward
calls to your Sprint service? After all, Google Voice is a free PBX
with voicemail and forwarding to multiple phone numbers. The caller
calls your Google Voice number and it gets forwarded to your Sprint
phone number (and any other numbers you want, like work number, home
number, all cell phones, etc). If you don't pick up any of those phones
then they get voicemail at Google Voice (which you can have an e-mail
notification sent to you even with a transcript of the message). If you
get a text to your Google Voice account, it will forward to all your
configured phones (that support SMS) plus Google Voice will send you an
e-mail notification.

Stop trying to use Sprint as your voicemail, SMS, and PBX provider.
Switch to Google Voice for all of that. Use Sprint as one of the
numbers that Google Voice forwards to. Don't bother forwarding calls
from Sprint to Google Voice.

If you have Internet access at home (likely) then also look into having
free VOIP service with Google Voice (after the cost of the adapter). I
used to have a landline at home (in addition to my cell phones) but
dumped that cost and went to Google Voice as my main number that
EVERYONE calls (and then Google Voice forwards to my other numbers). To
add VOIP at home, I got an Obitalk adapter: connect any phone to the
adapter, connect the adapter to the cable modem. I get and make free
calls using Google Voice to the USA and Canada. I had MagicJack in the
past but they has quality problems, plus you had to pay annually (or for
5 years) to use them. Google Voice is still free.

If you want to keep your Sprint number as your main number, you could
transfer that number to Google Voice. That's what I did but with a
twist. Google Voice only lets you transfer cell phone numbers to them.
So I transfered my home phone to my cell phone (for free) and
transferred my "new" cell phone number to my Google Voice service (I
think that was a $20 one-time charge). The Obitalk adapter is $50 but
that's a lot cheaper than having to subscribe to magicJack or other VOIP
providers. Yeah, there's Skype but that VOIP is free only when calling
other Skype users. Skype sucks. I have 60-minutes free per month with
an Office 365 subscription but I've had no need nor desire to use Skype
for phone calls (only only a tiny interest in Skype-to-Skype "calls").
See https://www.obitalk.com/info/googlevoice for info on the adapter.
Obitalk's quality for VOIP calls is a lot better than what I had with
magicJack.

No matter which cellular provider I have at the time or a multiple of
them, everyone calls my Google Voice number which rings my home VOIP
phone (via the Obitalk adapter), my work number, and all my cell phones.
I don't know if there is a limit to how many phones you can transfer
calls coming into Google Voice.

On my Android phones, I added the Hangouts Dialer app. That does 2
things. One is to let me use the Internet for free VOIP calls. The
other is to present a prompt as to which dialer to use for outbound
calls. I configured Hangouts Dialer to always use Google Voice. That
way, when I call others, especially after returning a call to my Google
Voice number that I picked up on my cell phone's number, the caller sees
my Google Voice number just as if I called from there. Basically
Hangouts Dialer calls a regional Google Voice hub to spoof that my call
originated from Google Voice. I don't have to tell someone not to call
back on what shows on their caller ID and instead my Google Voice number
because what they see in my caller ID is my Google Voice number.

Stop trying to get Google Voice slaved to Sprint. Instead slave Sprint
(and your other phone numbers) to Google Voice. Then you'll have all
the features of Google Voice regardless of what Sprint decides to
support or not. If you change to a different cellular provider, your
Google Voice number doesn't change. No having to tell everyone your new
cell phone number.

Google Voice - when used for incoming calls that it forwards elsewhere
(it is NOT the slave) - also has spam filtering. It's similar to using
NoMoRobo with your [home] landline (which is free but their Android app
costs money for a subscription). If you still get an occasional spam
call, you can mark it as spam to thereafter block it and vote that
number as a spam source (but be aware that spammers can and do spoof
their phone numbers). You can screen incoming calls: the caller has to
say their name, then your other phones are called and you hear their
name. If you hear blank, yep, another spammer. If they don't give a
name (any name, really) and they don't leave a message in voicemail,
well, it was an unimportant call. Along with Google Voice's screen
feature, its anti-spam/robo filtering, and with my phone configured for
silent ringtone with each of my contacts configured for a ringtone, the
only time my phones ring is when a contact calls me. Other calls have
to leave a name to get me to pickup or leave voicemail. That eliminates
a hell of a lot of spam calls.

Since you're using Google Voice, then use it as your primary phone
service and slave the other phones to Google Voice. It's a waste of
features to make Google Voice the slave to some other phone provider.

[Carlos E. R.]

On 2018-06-12 06:48, Orlando Enrique Fiol wrote:
> Hi all. Now that Sprint has ended Google Voice integration, I'm looking for a
> way to continue having text messages forwarded to email, as I used to do with
> Google Voice. My reason is that I'm totally blind from birth, work all day on
> my desktop or laptop and don't want to keep my phone on all day just to await
> text messages.
> I have perused Google Voice forums and its help documentation, Sprint's
> announcements about the end of Google Voice integration, as well as numerous
> web forums, all to no avail. Can anyone help?

I googled "android forward sms to email" and I see several hits. Some
are for forwarding entire conversations, so that not automatic.


<https://forums.androidcentral.com/general-help-how/757351-app-automatically-forward-both-sms-mms-messages-multiple-emails.html>

Someone asks for an app to do automatic forwarding.

Says he used Relay ME app, which does SMS but not MMS:

<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tinywebgears.relayme>

Other responses are for Tasker:

<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm>


Another thread here:

<https://forums.androidcentral.com/verizon-samsung-galaxy-note-3/413456-forward-sms-email-print.html>

One response is "Relay ME"


I also found another app, "SMS Forwarder"

<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.yas.freeSmsForwarder&hl=en_US>


I have not used any of those apps, so I can not vouch for any. And
forgive me, but I have no idea if they are easy for you to setup if they
need interaction.

Of course, any app needs that your Android phone is on.

HTH.


--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

[Orlando Enrique Fiol]

In article <pfpb2t$2207$1...@adenine.netfront.net>, robin_...@invalid.es
writes:

>Of course, any app needs that your Android phone is on.

Thanks for all these excellent app recommendations. While leaving my phone on
is not my first choice, it's better than only being able to reply to texts
using my blue tooth keyboard.
Although I know how to text via email, that requires me knowing the carrier of
the number I want to text. This wasn't necessary with Google Voice. Besides,
regardless of whether I port my existing number over to Google, it seems that
the text to email forwarding option is no longer present in the latest version
of Google Voice; at least, that's what repeated perusals of the website imply.

[VanguardLH]

Orlando Enrique Fiol wrote:

> it seems that the text to email forwarding option is no longer present
> in the latest version of Google Voice; at least, that's what repeated
> perusals of the website imply.

You need to go into the Legacy Google Voice GUI as they have not yet
migrated all settings into their new GUI. In the left frame, click on
the 3-dot menu entry. Once in the legacy GUI, go to Settings (gear
icon), Voicemail & Text, and enable the following option:

Text Forwarding option
Forward text messages to my email: <emailaddress>

[micky]

In comp.mobile.android, on Wed, 13 Jun 2018 01:58:14 -0400, Orlando

Enrique Fiol <of...@verizon.net> wrote:

>In article <pfpb2t$2207$1...@adenine.netfront.net>, robin_...@invalid.es
>writes:
>>Of course, any app needs that your Android phone is on.
>Thanks for all these excellent app recommendations. While leaving my phone on
>is not my first choice, it's better than only being able to reply to texts
>using my blue tooth keyboard.
>Although I know how to text via email, that requires me knowing the carrier of
>the number I want to text.

I noticed that too. I tell people I don't text, but I've been forced to
a little bit. Maybe 15 times.

So I was happy when I found out there were email addresses that
corresponded to phone numbers, but like you say, you have to know the
carrier.

Until, now I'm not sure about reading the text, but I know it's easy to
use the PC or laptop to send a text and you don't need to know the
carrier. Yes, my regular readers have guessed it. It's
MyPhoneExplorer, the all-purpose program/app.

Well, under Messages / Drafts, you can compose a text in a fairly small
box but using the regular keyboard and monitor, and send it to a phone
number.

There is also Messages / Conversations, where I hoped my text
interchanges would be, but it's empty. HOwever my Call log / Answered
and Missed are empty too, even though I have entries for that. Naybe I
need to sync something but syncing is greyed out for Conversations.

Still, I think if a text came in now, it would show up in Conversations.

It's a free program. You need an app and a program for the PC which is
available at www.fjsoft.at .

[Frank Slootweg]

Orlando Enrique Fiol <of...@verizon.net> wrote:

> In article <pfpb2t$2207$1...@adenine.netfront.net>, robin_...@invalid.es
> writes:
>
> >Of course, any app needs that your Android phone is on.
>
> Thanks for all these excellent app recommendations. While leaving my phone on
> is not my first choice, it's better than only being able to reply to texts
> using my blue tooth keyboard.

You seem to be saying that - instead of using your Android phone with
a Bluetooth keyboard - you want to use your computer to compose/send
(SMS) text messages.

If so and your computer runs Windows, see micky's response about
MyPhoneExplorer.

[...]

[micky]

In comp.mobile.android, on Thu, 14 Jun 2018 01:34:38 -0400, micky

I meant that I have entries in the phone itself in those categories.

>need to sync something but syncing is greyed out for Conversations.
>
>Still, I think if a text came in now, it would show up in Conversations.

So I sent myself texts, using MyphoneExplorer, to both of my cell
numbers and to my home phone (which is a landline nad doesn't know about
texts). I sent to all three because I don't know which cell carrier was
doing the sending. If I were using the phone itself, FreedomPop comes
with its own apps that look different from the default dialer and the
default texter that ATT uses. But on the PC none of that shows.

And I wasn't sure I coudl text to the same number I was texting from.
Can one do that?

So I sent to all three numbers and for all three it said they were sent
successfully, but now it's 22 hours later and I still havent' gotten any
of them.

However the Conversations line of the MPE does show the outgoing texts.
Oh yes, I got a text today, let me see if it shows in MPE...

It turns out the problem was that I had not synced, partly because it
uses different symbols for synciing Logs and Conversations, but now that
I have, everything is there.

Remembering that the OP is blind, let me note that there are drop down
menus that do most or all of what clicking within the window does.

To go from one section to another, click the View drop-down and then
Contacts, Call log, Organizer, Messages, Files, Other^^, and User****.

Under the Extras drop-down, the first entry is Multi-sync. I really
didnt' want to do something I didn't understand but for the sake of the
OP, I did, and it seems to sync every section of the phone. I'm not
sure I wanted that, but otoh, how bad can it be. Hmm. I guess it's good
because now I have a backup copy of every phone call I made on my long
trip overseas.

And now the Coversations are there, the texts both incoming and
outgoing. Each one gets its own line with a + sign in the left column
to expand the lilne.


The text I sent to my friend earlier today shows up, as well as her
answer, but the 3 I sent to myself still don't (That is, they show up as
having been sent, but not as having been received, and they havent'
shown up on the phone itself either as having been receieve, so I guess
MPE is working correctly. Maybe one can't text to the same cellphone,
even if from one carrier to the phone number of another carrier. ????





****I'd never noticed User before. It lets me change phones or add a
phone, which phone shows in the windows.

^^Other includes battery** and phone*** statistics, **temperature,
percent charge. ***Cpu usage, signal quality, model, firmware version,
screen resolution, size, IMEI, IMSI ??, LAC/cell id ??, and provider,
although here I think it only lists for sim1.

It also includes memory status (how much used.) and Notifications. I
don't seem to have any of them. ??

[Arlen Holder]

In response to what Orlando Enrique Fiol <of...@verizon.net> wrote :

Does this do what the OP is asking for?

o *SMS Forwarder*, by Ondrej Psencik
<http://www.psencik.cz/sms-forwarder>
<http://www.psencik.cz/file-cabinet/SmsForwarder.apk>

SMS Forwarder is safe, efficient utility that forwards all incoming SMS
messages, missed calls and low battery notification to email addresses you
configure.

SMS Forwarder supports only SSL encrypted SMTP, choose port 465 (default
value, so can be omitted in configuration) or according to your SMTP
server. If you want to use Gmail SMTP server for sending emails, you must
configure your Gmail account to enable less secure apps (less secure means
authentication via username and password in Google terminology). You can of
course use any SMTP server (over SSL) of your liking.

Example settings for Gmail:
Host: smtp.gmail.com
User name: your Gmail address
From email address: your Gmail address
Password: your Gmail password

Also enable less secure apps = authentication with username and password
(this has been forced by Google, SMS Forwarder was previously "fully"
secure app, but Google policy has changed):
https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps?pli=1
Versions
--
Pretty much anything you want to do, you can do with Android utilties.