Google’s Android Messages app is an SMS app that lets you send text messages, group texts, pictures, video, and audio messages from an Android phone.

It’s not necessarily the most advanced SMS app around, but it supports a few special features including emoji, stickers, and location sharing.

Soon there may be one more good reason to use Android Messages instead of alternatives like Textra (or whatever came pre-loaded on your phone): the ability to send SMS from your computer using a web interface.

Google hasn’t announced web support yet, but the folks at Android Police did a teardown of the latest Android Messages APK and found evidence that a web interface is in the works.

In order to use the service you’ll need to have Android Messages installed on your phone. Then you can type out a message in a web browser and it’ll be sent via your phone (so the service won’t work if your phone’s battery is dead).

Apple’s iMessage already allows users to send messages via a web browser, as does WhatsApp (which isn’t strictly speaking an SMS app). Google’s Allo chat app also already supports web messaging (but it also isn’t an SMS app). So while Android Messages would hardly be the first chat app to go cross-platform, it sounds like a pretty useful upgrade.

Android Police says other upcoming changes may be support for purchasing items through Android Messages and RCS improvements.

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5 replies on “Android users might be able to send SMS from a web browser soon”

  1. Google’s peer-to-peer messaging platforms have for the most part either flopped or were abandoned while SMS, a channel Google doesn’t own, lives on. Maybe this is a way Google can pry in to the SMS channel so at least they can spy on you(?) Plus SMS remains truly global. I’d hate to depend on Google as my primary messaging channel when traveling overseas.

  2. There are at least two web extensions which do this, such as Push Bullet and Join.

  3. This was why I started using Google Voice all those years ago, before I even had a texting plan. I don’t think I could start giving out my real number at this point as I’m so entrenched.

    1. The issue with Google Voice is that it is not international. It surprises me greatly that as an owner of a Google Home I can not send text messages from the device just because Google Voice in not where I live. It’s not like Google doesn’t know I have an Android phone right there. Much the same could be said about having Google Chrome on my computer. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle where all of the pieces are there on the table but Google has yet to put the pieces together. Maybe this is a small step to giving use universal messaging. From Google Chrome first but then from Google Home in the near future.

      1. Good point. I’m not saying I oppose these changes, just that I’m glad more people will have access to these features, like the ability to text with a real keyboard, but I don’t think I could personally go back and use Messages with my real cell number instead of Voice since that’s the number everyone has.

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