Windows Mobile – automatically forward text messages to another phone number
November 6, 2007 – 1:36 pmAs part of mobile marketing and emerging media teams at Barkley, I test a lot of different phones and mobile devices.
As part of that, it is nice to be able to forward all of the content to the test device, including voice calls and text messages. The devices already have email capability, either through the BlackBerry server or directly with Microsoft Exchange, so that isn’t a problem.
And most mobile carriers such as Sprint offer an easy way to forward calls. Here is the call forwarding info from Sprint:
To activate Call Forwarding:
- To deactivate Call Forwarding:
- Press * 7 2 0.
- Press TALK (a tone will confirm the deactivation).
There is a fee for call forwarding in the tune of $0.20 per minute from Sprint, but I don’t use the voice feature that much so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. As a side note, I saved the call forwarding info as a contact so I would have ready access to it from my phone in case I forget how to enable/disable the feature.
Via the Windows Mobile Blog, I stumbled upon an application called The Mobile Secretary. This little application has some very cool features, including the ability to forward text messages.
This app allows your Windows Mobile device to automatically respond to a missed call with a custom text message and optionally with your current calendar information. You can customize the messages for various groups of people as well. What if someone calls from their home phone number? Well, as long as you have a contact’s various phone numbers in your contact database, the text message will always be sent to their mobile phone.
There are 2 standard groups that you start off with. The “” group applies to a caller who can be found in your contacts, but has not been assigned to a group you created. The “” group applies to a caller that cannot be found in your contacts. You can create as many other groups that you’d like. Contacts can only belong to one group at a time.
Sometimes I use a secondary mobile phone that has a different phone number from my main phone. In this case, I usually forward my calls to the secondary phone so that friends can still reach me. This works well until someone sends a text message to my main phone. So, I added a text message forwarding feature to The Mobile Secretary. Just enter in the phone number in which to forward to, and all text messages sent to your device will be resent to the other device. There is also the option of appending the sender info to the message so that you know who it originally came from as well.
I’m sure there are other applications out there that do this, but to find one that is free is pretty cool. Do you have any apps for your mobile phone that you can’t live without?
Technorati Tags: Windows Mobile, SMS, forward, mobile, text messaging
2 Responses to “Windows Mobile – automatically forward text messages to another phone number”
Have you tried GrandCentral? I don’t know if it would help you in this particular case, but it comes in really handy if you’re juggling multiple mobiles.
By Kyle on Nov 19, 2007
I haven’t tried GrandCentral before, but have heard of several similar services. One problem I see with GrandCentral is that it does not allow you to transfer an existing phone number to them.
Also, I need text message forwarding as well. One item i ran into with text forwarding is that when I try to update twitter from my personal phone, twitter doesn’t recognize it as an authorized device, so I may need to move my twitter account to my other phone.
I had a Ureach number for several years and that was nice to have a toll free number and voicemail, in addition to call forwarding, all web based.
We also have a Vonage account for Lora since she works from home when she isn’t traveling. I have been happy with Vonage for the most part. If it has had problems, it is usually related to our internet service more than anything else.
By Dustin Jacobsen on Nov 19, 2007