Texting from Macbook to Android Phones using iMessage

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Level 1

31 points

Texting from Macbook to Android Phones using iMessage

I prefer to send/receive texts on my laptop or iPad on wifi, I sometimes don't check my iPhone for hours. Easier to type too.

Of course this works when the recipients are also Apple users. Not when they are Andriod -- I miss multiple messages, and my fat fingers have to peck out replies on my phone.

I've been browsing the message boards to try and find the workaround. There must be a way of entering an Android user's number in my contacts that enables me to message them direct from iMessage on my laptop.

I tried a workaround I found in a thread a year old, but it doesn't work. It gave a list of carriers and how to enter the Android user's number as an email address, in order to reach them through laptop iMessage.

I just tried, for example: XXXXXXXXXX@vtext.com for a Verizon User. But iMessage says "XXXXXXXXXX@vtext.com is not registered with iMessage". Gah.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Posted on Aug 30, 2013 10:29 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Scotch_Brawth

Level 3

825 points

Sep 1, 2013 9:13 PM in response to moomin-mama

iMessage is locked to Apple's products. It's not a universal service, not is it intended to be. Think BBM. If you do find a way round it (which I think is technically infeasible, and probably would require a security breach) it'll be quickly closed.

This isn't going to happen. Best thing to do is wait for BBM, which will be cross-platform - though still not on OS X.

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Answer 2

moomin-mama Author

Level 1

31 points

Sep 2, 2013 9:47 AM in response to Scotch_Brawth

Thanks for responding, if I understand correctly when you say "still not on OSX" do you mean BBM won't work on my macbook, only iPad and iPhone?

I figured I am probably misunderstanding something fundamental about the way iMessage works, and is intended to work. I'm not very technically minded in some areas, as you can probably tell.

Since posting I've discovered "Talk To" a texting App that is now installed on my Macbook, iPad, and iPhone. There a few good texting Apps for iPad and iPhone (IMO, WhatsApp, etc) but I couldn't find any others that also work on the OSX computer platform and sync messages across all devices.

I'm now using "Talk To" to message with my Android friends only. You get 200 free texts, and 50 free texts a month thereafter, which is enough for me as it's only two friends. Their texts now come through to my computer, which is the original objective I wanted to achieve, because I'm not a phone texter, don't check it often, and kept missing their texts.

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Answer 3

Sep 2, 2013 11:37 AM in response to moomin-mama

if I understand correctly when you say "still not on OSX" do you mean BBM won't work on my macbook, only iPad and iPhone?

Correct.

Since posting I've discovered "Talk To" a texting App that is now installed on my Macbook, iPad, and iPhone. There a few good texting Apps for iPad and iPhone (IMO, WhatsApp, etc) but I couldn't find any others that also work on the OSX computer platform and sync messages across all devices.

Glad you found something. I'll look at that later myself. Of course, I doubt you'll get the end to end privacy offered by iMessage and BBM, but if that's not your concern then you won't miss it.

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Answer 4

Oct 25, 2013 5:47 PM in response to moomin-mama

i got to the point of receiving my verification from iCloud on my android (Galaxy Note 3) but since Vtext has a character limit I can't receive the actual verification link, it cuts off right before it. If we can figure out a way to get the 5555555555@vtext address verified i think we could get this to work.

any ideas?

i've tried logging in at verizon and using the web text interface but it still has that darn character limit.

i'm coming from using iphones since day 1 and i'm having a lot of problems receiving ANY texts from my iOS contacts, after i fixed the issue in my icloud account i messed it all up again by sending messages from my macbook, forcing them back into iCloud resulting in me not receiving texts on my Note3 again. this is frustrating! hopefully google hangouts will somehow be able to fix this since we should be able to register it as an email and have it working that way.

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Answer 5

djbenoit

Level 1

0 points

Mar 16, 2014 6:48 PM in response to moomin-mama

So... What I do this be able to send messages to android from my macbook:

Install Hangouts.

Login.

Make sure you have your google account linked to your jabber.

Now you can send messages to your android friends who use hangout on their android phones. It is google's new default messaging app for androids.

Hope this works for you. It isn't exactly what you want, but close!

😁

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