Decent phone messaging app on Windows?

[sebalvarez]

macOS is vastly superior to Windows, even if Windows 11 takes some steps in the right direction. But it's far from the experience you get with macOS as far as syncing your devices go, and doing things on your Mac that most people do on their phones. I love my phone, but I hate typing on it, and with macOS I can simply open Messages and all my text messages are there, and I can send whatever I want.

With Windows 11, as far as I can tell, it can't even be considered a mediocre experience, it's just terrible. So far I see two options to be able to send text messages from my PC, which are Intel Unison and the Phone Link app that comes with Windows, which seems to be pretty much based on Intel Unison. They barely sync any messages, telling you that messages received while the phone was not connected will not show.

It can't even send the same text to more than one person at a time, and forget about sending a simple jpeg. It's pathetic.

So I thought I'd ask here, because if I ask in Windows forums, most Windows users don't even know that you can send and receive text messages from your computer. Sadly, I realized many times that macOS users don't even know that they have that ability and have had it for at least 10 years. I remember buying a Macbook Pro in 2015 after a few years of not having a Mac, and I was amazed that you could just do that.

So I went online searching for alternatives to these two apps and as far as I can tell, there's nothing else. Anyone found something better?

 

[Rainbow Apple]

There's Signal, WhatApp, and if you're in the US, Google Voice. None of them will really give you what you're looking for, but they're good to have, and I have all three of them. Signal and WhatsApp are instant messaging services founded by the same guy, so they have a lot in common. Signal is more secure, but WhatsApp is more popular.

Google Voice is not an instant messaging service as term is often used, but a free telephone service which works from any computer with a browser. This means that you can use it to send messages to anyone with a phone number, they don't have to have Google Voice. However, your Google Voice service will have its own phone number, so you can't use it to send or receive text messages on your main phone number.

 

[salamanderjuice]

Do you have an iPhone? Windows Phone Link is IME pretty close to Messages on Mac with an Android device. To get iPhones working at all MS and everyone has to resort to hacky workarounds. It's Apple that makes it not possible, it's the same reason non-Apple Watches are so limited on iOS. They just don't care about making their devices work better with others because they want you to only use their stuff.

 

[throAU]

signal for the win