Android: DeskSMS lets you manage your SMS messages from Gmail, GTalk, a speedy web interface, and even a Chrome extension — no number porting required, and it works in Australia.
Over the years we’ve featured a few different SMS-to-desktop programs, but none of them worked perfectly, and none of them fit everyone’s workflow. DeskSMS works amazingly well and lets you choose how you want to manage text messages on your computer. Any time you receive a text message on your Android phone, it’ll automatically forward them to a number of different services. If you have your IM client open all day, you can receive and respond to text messages through Google Talk, or you can send them to Gmail if you’re using it as your central, universal communications hub. Alternatively, you can just view them from the web interface on any computer, or a browser extension that puts the slick web interface in Chrome or Firefox’s toolbar.
It’s dead simple to use. You just install DeskSMS on your phone, link it to your Google account, and check which services you want to forward your text messages to. You’ll then get your texts instantly through Gmail, Google Talk, or your browser extension, and can respond to them right from there. Best of all, if you respond from Google Talk or Gmail, your SMS partner will get a message back from your number, not some cryptic number or email address that they don’t understand.
It appears to work as intended with Australian mobile numbers, but it’s a little fiddly to set up and the Chrome extension is slow to load. You may be better off using the web interface. DeskSMS is a free download for Android, and has both Chrome and Firefox extensions as well as a web interface. Hit the links below to check it out, and let us know you go in the comments.
DeskSMS for Android [Android Market]
DeskSMS for Google Chrome [Chrome Web Store]
DeskSMS for Firefox [Firefox Add-Ons]
DeskSMS Web Interface
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