Real-Life Texting Scenarios
Imagine you are using your PC to pay your bills, apply for a job, or do research for a project when suddenly, “Ding!” Your phone alerts you to a new text message. What would you do?
Likely, you’d stop what you were doing and reach for your phone. Then, after reading and responding to the message on your phone, possibly looking at a few other notifications and browsing a bit, you’d turn your attention back to your PC and try to remember where you left off—making it harder to get back in your flow.
Or maybe you’re in a meeting with your laptop in front of you when your phone vibrates to signal a text. Do you pick it up to read and respond? While looking at your PC during a meeting is both expected and accepted, being on your phone is generally not.
In both scenarios, the distraction of one text message on your phone pulls your attention away from the moment and can cost you valuable progress and productivity. It can also potentially impact others’ perception of your professionalism, attention, or participation.
While text messaging is an important communication method, it can be both disruptive and necessary at the same time. There is a lot of convenience in being able to respond to a message right away.
The good news is that you have many options for sending and receiving texts from your computer, so you don’t need to switch devices or change focus to manage everything you need to do.
Let’s walk-through a few items to keep in mind when selecting a computer-based messaging option.
Things to Consider
A benefit of adding a computer-based messaging option is simplification. By bringing texting functionality to your PC, you reduce the number of devices you have to work with during your focused hours down to one, and you keep all your interactions within the same screen—maximizing your productivity.
With simplification as a goal, here are four things to keep in mind when selecting the best computer-based messaging option for your needs.
- Compatibility: Today, you already have multiple devices, likely running on different operating systems (OSs), and myriad apps and programs you use to manage your personal, work, or school responsibilities. Look for an app option that helps you reduce complexity, works with multiple OSs, and doesn’t require new accounts or logins.
- Access: A major barrier to texting is making sure you and the people you message with use similar or compatible texting apps or are part of the same messaging groups. If your goal is to optimize convenience while also keeping connected, look for a PC-based texting solution that works for the majority of people and groups you communicate with regularly.
- Security: You don’t want to put yourself at risk of others intercepting your messages. Look for a solution where you can feel confident that your information and privacy are protected.
- Capabilities: The solutions you enjoy using the most are easy to use and include all the features you need. Look for solutions that give you real-time access to your contacts, allow you to review your conversations so you don’t need to go to your phone to find that information, support both sending and receiving messages, and provide notifications so you don’t miss a message when you’re heads down on a project.
Text Messaging Platforms
Online collaboration platforms, like Microsoft Teams or Slack, enable you to text with colleagues using a PC-based app or through web-based access. While these platforms can streamline communication channels and support quick individual or group responses to conversation threads, they are designed for business rather than personal use, and you can only chat with others who have access to the same group. Additionally, business collaboration tools may require a paid plan.
Instant Messaging Services
You may already use an instant messaging service, like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, to communicate with friends. To start using these services on your PC and to synch shared data across both your phone and desktop, you may need to download and log in to the app or its website on both devices.
While you can use your PC to view and respond to messages sent through these specific instant messaging services, appointment reminders and messages sent from friends using different texting programs will still need to be managed on your phone. If your goal is to simplify the number of programs you use to connect with others, this solution doesn’t help with app consolidation.
Integrated Device Features
If your computer and phone use the same OS and are part of the same ecosystem—such as if you use all Apple products—you can benefit from shared features designed to synch and work together.
Apple iMessage
If you have an iPhone and an Apple PC, once logged in with your AppleID on both devices, you can use the integrated iMessage feature to send and receive text messages from your computer. iMessage is built to provide a similar experience across iOS devices. It automatically updates your information across all connected iOS systems and is encrypted for security.
However, if you want to send and receive iMessage on your Windows computer, you’ll need to make sure the solution you choose can support it.
Google Chat, Google Messages, Google Voice
If you use an Android phone and have a Google account, you can access and use a web-based version of Google Chat or Google Messages on your PC. Your Google account is cloud-based, meaning your text history is stored in the cloud, and your online experience will look and act similarly.
If you have a US-based Google Voice phone number, Google Voice does support web-based texting to US and Canadian numbers (US territories excluded). Texts are sent either by Wi-Fi or use mobile data if Wi-Fi isn’t available.
It is important to know that there may be some limitations when using your Google Voice number for web-based texting. Also, not all phone carriers will accept messages from Google Voice, so there are cases where your texts may not be received.
See the Google Voice site for more information.
Alternate Web- and Email-Based Options
Wireless Phone Carriers
Your cellphone carrier may offer a web-based service you can use for texting or a text-to-email option. Contact your provider to find out what they offer. Be sure to ask about any associated costs, functionality (including the ability to send and receive messages and the amount of call history retained), and what type of data encryption is used.
Free SMS Website
Many companies offer free SMS texting through the web. While this option means you don’t need a cellphone or an app to send a text from your PC, many only support one-way individual texts, have message length limitations, don’t retain text history, are typically supported by ads, and may not offer data encryption.
Some email providers support sending text messages by email. The good news about using email to send text messages is that it can work across operating systems, works with any email client, can handle attachments, and can even send texts anonymously. However, email systems are not designed for texting, so the messages may end up in the recipient’s spam folder, there may be a delay in delivery, and most importantly, responses are not in real-time like on your phone.
To send a text by email you need to know the recipient’s phone number and carrier. Note that not all carriers can receive texts via this method, and you will need to know the carrier’s extension. If you don’t know the extension, you can find it using a carrier lookup service, though many will only provide one lookup per day for free.