

MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service. However, an SMS message contains only text (no pictures or videos) and is limited to 160 characters. SMS is an abbreviation for Short Message Service.

You’re welcome.Did you know you can enable SMS and MSS correspondence on your Mac with Messages? You can.īut first, a little background. It’s excellent, or should I say desk-cellent. Texting from a real keyboard is excellent and allows you to respond much quicker than you could on your phone. Final ThoughtsĮven if it’s not DeskSMS, I would highly recommend some kind of text chat program for your computer. How long that will last before being consumed by Hangouts is anyone’s guess. Right now, Mountain View is keeping it alive. You should also consider whether you want to pay $5 every year for DeskSMS when MightyText works perfectly well and is free, albeit through a web app.įinally, Google Talk isn’t the best solution for messaging.
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The disadvantage of this is that Messages won’t show your full text history the same way that MightyText does – it only shows the messages received while you were online. The only time I want text notifications on my computer is when I’m using my computer. Personally, I prefer this, because chances are I’ve already seen the text and responded. One quirk of the DeskSMS setup is that your Messages account does not receive texts while you’re logged off or not online. Google Talk clients aren’t limited to OS X. You could even use this setup on Windows. Why should iPhone users be the only ones who get those? You also get to use those awesome quick-reply popups in OS X. This offers a lot more flexibility and functionality than a web app like MightyText. You can use any Google Talk enabled chat program (e.g. This particular setup has some nice advantages. This way, you can see their name while you chat! Advantages and Disadvantages Use the name function to find the person’s name and add their DeskSMS number to their contact. The first time you get a message from a contact you’ve never texted with through DeskSMS, right-click on their name in the left column of the Messages app and select “Add to existing contact.” Now follow the wizard to add your Google contacts, which should be the same as the ones on your phone. Open the Contacts app for OS X, go to Preferences, Accounts, and hit the “+” at the bottom. However, I dislike chatting with so I found a way to get my contact names (and pictures!) in there. Technically, you don’t need to sync your contacts to use DeskSMS, which puts the contact name in front of every message you receive. Once that’s set up, you should be ready! Step Three: Sync contacts Now it’s as simple as following the wizard to add your Google account. Go to Accounts and hit the “+” at the bottom. Hit Cmd-, (that’s a comma) to open the app’s Preferences. May as well, since I text a lot from my laptop.īe sure that the option to deliver messages through Google Talk is checked. I bit the bullet and signed up for a year of service. Since it’s an IM, this means that we can use a messaging client to send and receive texts. It takes every text you receive and reroutes it through a custom Google Talk address and sends the text to you as an IM. However, DeskSMS does perform one essential function.
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Aside from a 14-day trial, the paywall pushes a lot of people toward the free MightyText. It’s not the most popular of services, from what I can tell. It boasted a backend service that, for $5 per year, would let you text from your tablet and PC.
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Step One: Install DeskSMSĪ while back, famous developer Koushik Dutta released DeskSMS.
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It does require paying for a service… but, if you’re serious about getting real integration between an Android phone and the Messages app on a Mac, this is how to do it. Thankfully, this is Android, and there is a solution. But that kind of native integration with OS X just isn’t possible with alternative solutions like MightyText. Don’t get me wrong, I prefer Android and have no intention of switching. The part that made me jealous was not having an iPhone. It’s a cool feature, and another way that iMessage integrates into the Apple ecosystem. The Messages app for OS X features popup notifications with a little box for speedy replies right there next to the message text. I was jealous when Apple announced the new quick-reply feature for Mavericks.
