Google app “Messages for Web” not working?

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Your advice would be appreciated on the following please:-

Some organisations are demanding that financial web transactions be authenticated by the use of SMS text messages, without offering any alternative methods. This creates a difficulty for me at home (in a rural part of the UK), because although I have an excellent broadband connection, there is absolutely no useful mobile phone reception.

I thought of trying the “Messages for Web” Google application to receive such codes over the internet at home, but have failed to get it to do anything. Although my FireFox web browser (version 78.0.2, running under Win 10 64bit Home, 1909, build 18363.959) connects perfectly to my “Moto (g7) play” phone and correctly mimics the content of its Messages app on the computer screen, I’ve had no success actually sending or receiving texts while at home. This happens whether or not I have the SIMS “on” in the phone. When trying to send a message, I only get a “Sending…” indication that stays up permanently.

Am I misunderstanding the capabilities of the “Messages for Web” app please?

I was hoping that all the necessary protocol transactions for SMS messaging would be handled through the broadband connection, but it would seem this is not the case. How exactly is this app intended to work please? There seems little clarity in the information I have found on the web.

If it is merely a convenience app, mirroring the content of the Messaging app on the phone (but will not work without the phone getting a proper signal in the first place), are there any other options for people in this predicament? I can’t believe I’m alone in this!

(Because of the non-existent mobile reception at my home, I only keep the phone for travel emergencies and run it on the lowest cost PAYG packages available to minimise cost. I realise that if I were to go for more expensive recurring monthly packages I might be able to persuade a service provider to cough-up a femtocell solution, but that would be hard to justify for the occasional internet financial transaction.)

Many thanks

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You are not alone, although a different country!

Choose a cell phone network that offers WiFi calling. See UK networks that offer WiFi Calling. In the US, I’ve used Republic Wireless with excellent results… but I don’t see that they are available in the UK… Some cell phones have WiFi calling built in (you might check yours) already, but need it turned on, if your carrier offers it. Some use an app.

Look at what is being offered carefully, because it varies… but the advantage of some of the services (like Republic Wireless) is that they preferentially use WiFi. So their unlimited talk and text is $15/month. With 1 G data, it is $20.

I think it is GoogleFi that offers a WiFi phone service… haven’t tried that one, though.

Or…

Check and see if you have TextFree Web (I’m in US) or another WIFi text/calling app for your area. TextFree:

“Send and receive text and picture messages on your PC, Mac, iOS or Android mobile device, or tablet for free!”

You do need to keep using the free apps at least once a week to keep your number… and some of the free apps can have intrusive advertising.

 

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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Recycler wrote:

I was hoping that all the necessary protocol transactions for SMS messaging would be handled through the broadband connection, but it would seem this is not the case. How exactly is this app intended to work please?

… I believe it is just a mirroring of the phone functionality to the computer. The app transfers data between your computer and phone via the web, and the phone is then supposed to send/receove SMS normally over its cell connection.

So, “merely a convenience app” as you say.

Well, except if you can safely leave your phone in some other location where it does get service, and still get a data connection to it…

Recycler wrote:

are there any other options for people in this predicament? I can’t believe I’m alone in this!

There are separate “SMS gateway” services. Some telephone operators offer these, usually as an added-cost option, and then there are completely standalone services.

Some of these are web-based (sort of like this forum thing, heh), and email-to-sms is also quite common… still other things do exist as well, didn’t Skype offer this in USA and Canada, for example?

Actually with a quick search I did find some UK-based 2-way email/sms gateway services… one of them, https://www.textmagic.com/sms-pricing/ …

I hope you don’t need to have the same number for both calls and SMS? That’d require help from your phone carrier.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Dan McCoy

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I have Messages for Web in x32Win10ProV21H2; recently I’ve experienced frequent intermittent loss of ability to enter text into the message box. When I CAN enter text, there is a vertical bar in the box where the text is entered; when I can not enter text, that ‘insert marker’ is missing.

Related or co-incidence : while writing this post, for a while the mouse cursor would not appear in THIS screen, although it would elsewhere.

 

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Since I started running Messages for Web in the Chrome browser, the fault has not returned.

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