How to send SMS online with Android Messages

Google has finally launched the Android Messages platform, to manage and send SMS from the web. Easy to use, it challenges Apple's Messages and WhatsApp

To tell the truth, Google had announced it a long time ago, but had then decided to postpone its presentation and launch until a later date. Presentation, however, that there has been (a bit 'quietly, really) in the day on Monday. Big G has thus removed the veil from the web platform dedicated to Android Messages, a new service that will allow you to send SMS online.

This is, in fact, the web version of the SMS app for Android developed in Mountain View and present by default in the Pixel products from the same Google and in all smartphones with Android One on board. Obviously, the SMS app can also be installed on other Android devices. And, given the new web functionality, even more users will want to at least test the app and its platform to send SMS online.

How does Messages Android web work

To be able to send SMS from the web with Messages Android there will be no need for great effort: the operation, in fact, replicates broadly that of WhatsApp Web and Allo, another instant messaging app developed by Google itself. Precisely these "basic" features have led many to consider Messaggi Android (in its web version, of course) a serious rival to Messages, the messaging service working for iOS and macOS users.

Whether it is or not, let's now see how to use Messaggi Android to send SMS online. First of all, you need to connect to the messages.android.com portal and follow the wizard until a QR code is shown on the screen. Then launch the Messages app on your Android smartphone (install it, if you haven't already done so), open the application menu and look for the "Messages for the web" item. You'll be asked to authorize the use of the camera: grant it, so that Messages Android can scan the code and perform the synchronization between the smartphone content and the web platform. As written in the home page of the service, it is necessary that the smartphone is connected to the Internet: it is advisable, therefore, to keep the Wi-Fi connection active, in order to avoid consuming the data traffic of your tariff plan.

Once the synchronization is complete, you will be able to send SMS online to all your contacts in your address book. Be careful, though: the messages you send will obviously be deducted from your rate plan (if any).