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Anything 100% free & good for SMS via apps for Desktop PC & Android too ??

Started by vtsnaab, April 24, 2014, 09:18:24 AM

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corporate_gadfly

Quote from: vtsnaab on February 16, 2015, 04:33:40 PM
The mystery to me is that no matter how many substitute-for-SMS & SMS-like apps have appeared for Android - there is almost nothing which enables the independent use of SMS via Desktop PC.
(I have detailed some of what little for this I've been able to find in prior replies here...)
Found GVNotifier.

Can you please try it out and let us know?

Cheers.

corporate_gadfly

#21
Quote from: corporate_gadfly on February 17, 2015, 07:36:04 AM
Found GVNotifier.

Can you please try it out and let us know?

Cheers.
Never mind. From other posts, it is abundantly clear that you are averse to Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5SP1 as well.

May want to read why you might need it. To each, their own.

.NET is a great thing for a programmer. Unless you need to feel the chill of bare metal, there is no sense programming on it. A managed environment is the best environment to program in. There is no sense in writing KLOCs of libraries for your application when those libraries already exist. When .NET gets a fix, your app gets a fix. Your app will be compatible as long as you continue to follow best practices. The same cannot be said for a native application.

azrobert

Quote from: lhm. on February 13, 2015, 11:16:57 AM
See this link for free SMS over WiFi in Hangouts with Andriod, "CoolPad" + iOS & WP

http://www.reviewtechnica.com/2014/11/google-hangouts-free-wifi-calls.html

Ihm,

Thank you for the link.
I previously couldn't get SMS to work with Hangouts.
I just had to check Messages under Settings and now SMS is working.

LTN1

Are you using Hangouts in a cell phone for SMS? If so, doesn't that use your cell minutes--or has that changed? (I know using hangouts and the hangouts dialer on my android phone is free but I thought SMS via an android device uses the cell phone minutes.)

[/quote]

Ihm,

Thank you for the link.
I previously couldn't get SMS to work with Hangouts.
I just had to check Messages under Settings and now SMS is working.

[/quote]

azrobert

Quote from: LTN1 on February 17, 2015, 03:32:43 PM
Are you using Hangouts in a cell phone for SMS? If so, doesn't that use your cell minutes--or has that changed? (I know using hangouts and the hangouts dialer on my android phone is free but I thought SMS via an android device uses the cell phone minutes.)
I'm using Hangouts for SMS via WiFi on my $10 Android that doesn't have a cell plan, so It can't be using minutes.
See: http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=9351.0

I also read that Hangouts SMS uses minutes and assumed that is why it wasn't working, but I saw Ihm's post and thought I'd try it again.

I don't know if you will be charged minutes when you have a cell plan.

vtsnaab

Thanks !!:
Quote from: corporate_gadfly on February 17, 2015, 07:32:43 AM
Are you perhaps okay with trying out a firefox plugin instead? Maybe it will have better memory usage. I just tried it out and it does indeed send SMS for free using GV.
I did not know there was even such an extension.
It says this...:
QuoteVersion 0.1.3    Released October 31, 2014   39.0 kB    Works with Firefox 25.0 and later
So...I'll have to update my Palemoon variant of Firefox and give that a try.

vtsnaab

Thanks for understanding my oddities about this:
Quote from: corporate_gadfly on February 17, 2015, 08:04:31 AM
Never mind. From other posts, it is abundantly clear that you are averse to Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5SP1 as well.
That app is known to me - and I did try it once on a test PC before wiping it completely.

I keep my PC running lean & mean for years at a time minus any excesses by using mostly portable apps from the HDD and avoiding bloat as much as possible - and for a total non-coder like myself anything beyond .net 2.x is just needless bloat & best avoided.

ddalley

In your top post, vtsnaab, you mention that text+ is not reliable, for you. I just want to say that, for anyone else looking into this thread and are wondering what to use for free text messaging to real phones, text+ works great, for me. I was quite amazed to learn that it will even transfer image files in messages!

I've never had a problem sending or receiving text messages regarding real phones, so maybe something is going on at your end. There are other such programs in the Android store, too, but I never needed them, so I never used them. text+ is the bee's knees, as far as I am concerned. Free SMS to real phones? What's not to like?

However, it is for tablets and smart phones only, not PCs, so it won't help you there.

vtsnaab

Indeed - sometimes sent messages just vanished altogether...:
Quote from: ddalley on February 17, 2015, 10:51:36 PM
In your top post, vtsnaab, you mention that text+ is not reliable, for you. I just want to say that, for anyone else looking into this thread and are wondering what to use for free text messaging to real phones, text+ works great, for me. I was quite amazed to learn that it will even transfer image files in messages!

I've never had a problem sending or receiving text messages regarding real phones, so maybe something is going on at your end. There are other such programs in the Android store, too, but I never needed them, so I never used them. text+ is the bee's knees, as far as I am concerned. Free SMS to real phones? What's not to like?

However, it is for tablets and smart phones only, not PCs, so it won't help you there.

If they made a PC/desktop app for it that would be delightful indeed.
Of course, if I had a super-duper high powered new PC then I could use Android emulation with Text+; but since I have an older PC that is not for me and as you said - they offer no desktop app.

Seems to me that some clever folks would want to make a nice, simple way to combine GV SMS with a nice, simple interface for PC users - but since there is only the one for PCs with .net, I must be mistaken.

Thanks.

vtsnaab

Here are some further ideas found just tonight, as yet unexplored:

https://www.mysms.com/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reach/

Another angle is ways to use the Android apps from the desktop...

MightyText
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.texty.sms

Mobizen
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rsupport.mvagent

Airdroid is another option - but for all its claims it is actually quite limited.

I also made a combo using ShareKM & VNC Viewer before which allows full usage of the KB/mouse of the PC along with the Android screen on the bigger screen - but it is a bit slow & clunky that way.

That is all for tonight - I'll post more & be happy to see more cool suggestions from other folks here too !!

Thanks.

vtsnaab

Some technologies just remain incomplete for a very long time it seems - and cross platform SMS is a very real example, sadly.

Such a simple looking, pure-text format as SMS is should be all around us - available across ALL platforms;
But it just ain't (unless one is willing to jump through very certain hoops just to have it).

So, I'm re-visiting this thread as I was reminded of it by the very generous info provided by Azrobert, here:
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=9841.msg65311#msg65311

Having read and re-read his posting, I get the impression from it that its idea is more dependent on my home IP/router/Obi box than what I really seek ultimately.
My goal is to have SMS and phone calls via Wifi-only from home as well as public Wifi when I may be out for a few days and all the home stuff is fully powered down.
(As I am a very happy Obi110 user who also uses Circlenet, it would be great if Sam & Co. offered SMS at the same amazing rates as their DIDs & minutes, but AFAIK that has not happened.)

So:
For me, this is an ongoing & very interesting quest, and I've kept looking for better & better answers every now & again which may meet my rather peculiar & singular desires as I've tried to explain them in this thread.

Regarding the repeatedly suggested 'Hangouts' idea:
I have thus far resisted approaching 'Hangouts' very fervently for 2 main reasons=>
1. I've seen where others have said that it was a one-way trip that somehow messed up their other GV uses;
2. I am seriously averse to 'social media' in all it's recent myriad forms.

That being said - I am also not a total bonehead so I've also re-read the article here, as suggested:
http://www.reviewtechnica.com/2014/11/google-hangouts-free-wifi-calls.html

I am forced to admit it does not look too scary -IF- it also does not irreversibly mess up any other GV uses, but I remain uncertain about this aspect of it, true or false ??
Aside of that concern, it does (sadly...) appear to be the single most direct way to use one's GV number freely & directly via a Wifi-only smartphone.

Another choice coming back up (hopefully VERY soon !!) may be TextPlus, as they've said it will be coming soon for the PC platform - which would likely be very much better for me than using the wee phone for SMS - and would also allow that as well as calls via Wifi only.

I've also begun using My Phone Explorer with the 2.3.6 phone and it allows SMS right from the PC very nicely.
Google Voice Full Integration works well with older versions of Android so together with MPE I can do almost everything from the desktop PC as I desire it to be with that older phone.

For the newer phone I will likely soon try Mobizen after I've landed upon an acceptable solution for calls & SMS for that one.

I also inherited a broken tablet (now fixed) with 4.x on it and I may also try to set it up the same way as the newer cheapie phone...it is a very cute toy.

Seriously cheap Android devices are a very good platform for casual experimentation without worry of failures.
There is an abundance of cheapie and freebie (orphaned) stuff easily found these days and using that to play on is what I'm doing that I highly recommend for anyone who likes learning fun stuff.