Safe SMS-to-Email App [Android]?

August 24, 2015 10:27 AM

Is there a safe Android app that will somehow forward SMS texts to email?

I have a client who send ideas, including links to articles, pdf attachments, and image attachments to my phone number.

While I realize that it's getting to the point where I just have to say that it's challenging to incorporate this stream of info into my workflow. I have to download the images onto my phone (into a Drive folder which will automatically upload to the cloud), or open the URL and bookmark, or somehow take notes from the SMS.

on the other hand the engagement just started up and I'm still working on building a relationship with him. I'd rather not blow a bunch of social capital on getting him to change his behavior if there is an app that can solve my problem for me.

So is there an app that can forward SMS's to my email account.

- Client sends SMS's from his phone number ot my phone number.
- I use Google Hangouts to send and receive texts; texts from phone numbers do not display in the desktop client
- There are a few apps that seem to do this, but it's really hard to tell if the ratings are authentic, and that the app is safe to install.

Any ideas?

posted by Nevin to Technology (11 answers total)

Hold press on the SMS in Hangouts. Forward. New SMS. Type your e-mail address.
posted by deezil at 10:42 AM on August 24, 2015

Could you set up an If This Then That recipe to deal with this?
posted by teststrip at 10:50 AM on August 24, 2015

SMS Backup+ is the one I always used.
posted by jozxyqk at 10:54 AM on August 24, 2015

Another vote for SMS Backup+. Have used it for years. Works great.
posted by WalkingHorse at 11:02 AM on August 24, 2015

Hold press on the SMS in Hangouts. Forward. New SMS. Type your e-mail address.

For some reason Hangouts on my phone craps out every time I try to do this, experimenting with a variety of email addresses. It just crashes.

I will try SMS Backup+ and report back.

ITTT is the backup plan...
posted by Nevin at 11:04 AM on August 24, 2015

While it doesn't forward to email, I use Airdroid for things like this. It'll allow you to work with SMS messages or photos/downloads on a phone via a PC or Mac using a web browser over Wi-Fi. (You don't need to set up an account with them or use the PC/Mac app, but that does make the process more seamless.)

Is it safe? Any closed-source application used to forward privileged content will be, on some level, unsafe. It is, however, an incredibly useful tool that does not appear to be linked to malicious intent in any way, has a decent track record, and has plenty of visibility in the Android community.
posted by eschatfische at 11:29 AM on August 24, 2015

SMS Backup+ seems to have worked, although the only issue is that none of the images sent as SMS appear in the messages sent to my inbox.

The texts are there, but the images contained in the original texts are not.
posted by Nevin at 11:32 AM on August 24, 2015

In the future, can you ask him to txt your email? Same actions on his end except that he uses your email address instead of phone number. On your end, you get the message as an email from [e-mail] or whatever the relevant carrier is.
posted by yeahlikethat at 12:09 PM on August 24, 2015

Does he have Whatsapp? If he sends the messages to you with that instead, you can use their web interface to access the content and download to your computer.
(I'm not suggesting you install Whatsapp just for this, but it seems so widespread these days, that you might both already be using it)
posted by Gomez_in_the_South at 12:32 PM on August 24, 2015

Google Voice does this if I understand what you want. All SMS are forwarded to my email and I can reply to them from email. MMS are also sent to email. In fact, MMS do not come into the app itself, but do get forwarded to my email. Sending MMS is not an option though for Voice.
posted by AugustWest at 3:47 PM on August 24, 2015

Google Voice does this if I understand what you want.

Sadly I am in Canada.

I will see if he can email me the SMS. Such an odd workflow.
posted by Nevin at 4:44 PM on August 24, 2015