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SMS Auto-forwarding

I think I have tried every app out there... either found on my own, or recommended by others. What I am trying to do seems simple, but apparently not. I have a HeyWire number that I'm attempting to use as a replacement for the native messaging app in my phone. I also have a wifi-only tablet, which has no native app, since it has no carrier-assigned phone number. HeyWire works great on both devices. I want to permanently auto-forward my normal messaging number (from the phone) to the HeyWire number, w/o leaving an extra copy of the message in the native messaging app. The problem seems to be that many of the apps don't seem to be able to forward to non-carrier numbers (maybe they think it's a landline?). Here is what I've tried so far, along with the result:
 
I am one of the developers for an app-in-progress called PhoneLeash (www.tinyurl.com/phoneleashfree). Its on the market, free, but in very early stages, meaning we love interesting challenges like this!

As it stands now, PhoneLeash only forwards SMS (and missed calls) to an email address (SMS destination coming). You can also reply to SMS from the email account (if your device has an email-to-SMS address). I know PhoneLeash can forward to Heywire numbers (in < 5 hours!) since I've replied to texts from Heywire users, and no complaints.

Do Heywire numbers have an associated email? E.g. xxxxxxxxxx@heywire.com

Why not just delete phone SMS store manually? Privacy? Laziness :)

PVS
 
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Thank you for the replies thus far - keep 'em coming.

PVS, no email associated with HeyWire numbers. It is SMS/MMS only. In fact, if you voice dial a HeyWire number, you'll receive an intercept recording telling you to text the number. Yes, of course I can delete the "extra" messages from the native app... and am. It's not laziness, but it's twice the housekeeping chore to manage messages in two apps instead of just one. I feel that machines should work for us, not the other way around! :D
 
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Thank you for the replies thus far - keep 'em coming.

PVS, no email associated with HeyWire numbers. It is SMS/MMS only. In fact, if you voice dial a HeyWire number, you'll receive an intercept recording telling you to text the number. Yes, of course I can delete the "extra" messages from the native app... and am. It's not laziness, but it's twice the housekeeping chore to manage messages in two apps instead of just one. I feel that machines should work for us, not the other way around! :D

Hopefully the HeyWire forwarding in the latest release of PhoneLeash (www.tinyurl.com/phoneleashfree) will work OK. Deleting forwarded messages from the SMS Inbox is not there yet, give it a few more days :)

If you like what you see, do leave some feedback at the Android Market site - we really need some! But if you don't like something can you email support A T gearandroid DOT SEE OH OM ;)
 
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This is an extremely busy time of year for me at work, but I'll try to get to this over the next couple of days, and give you some feedabck. Thank you for your interest and efforts!

You should also give yourself some exposure by posting up in the Alpha & Beta Testing sub-forum, and over on XDA forums.

Thanks! Thats great input (just posted to the A&B forum)!
 
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Copy of my email feedback, provided with permission of developer:

Hey! It's me, Mr. Lucky, from androidforums. I put the app thru some testing and here are my thoughts. First, I understand that this app is intended to do much more than my autofwd to HeyWire requirement, so apologies in advance if items on my wish list conflict with your core intent for the app.

LIKE:
1. I really like the tray icon. It's a nice visual reminder and clearly suggestive of what it does.
2. I really like that this is the only app I've tested providing reply functionality for forwarded SMS.
3. It works fine with HeyWire, and is just as fast as dgAway and SMS Bounce.

DISLIKE:
1. The "-sent from phoneleash-" footer appended to reply SMS messages needs to be removed (or at least provide an option to remove). This gets included in the SMS message total, and can make a msg exceed the 160 character txt limit, thus causing the message to split. For people like me on a limited text plan, this could cause surprise billing overages (i.e., forwarding multiple messages for a single reply).
2. The notification bar icon doesn't reinstantiate after a reboot. This is a bug, as the forwarding works... just the icon is missing! I'm trying to use HeyWire and forwarding as a way of eliminating the need to use the native messaging app, and just use forwarding with people not in my address book. The notification icon is a handy reminder.
3. There is too much info in the forwarded SMS, causing short messages to split, thus exhausting my carrier text limit prematurely. For example, a 35 character test msg resulted in a multi-line msg (e.g., "SMS from ...", "Message recd:", etc.) split into two messages (a 160 char one + an additional one of 18 chars to include the remainder of the Message recd date).
4. The reply function, while nice, is clunky to use. Having to prepend the code and surround the whole message in quotes is difficult to do because of the way numbers, quotes, and letters are accessed on Android keyboards.

All in all, I consider it a solid attempt but still needs work. The risk of billing overruns makes it a no go for me in its current form. Here's another (unrelated) observation. I couldn't find your app in the Market by name (tried with and w/o space between words) yet when I used your tinyurl link from the forum post, it redirected to market np, and I downloaded from there. :O There was no issue finding it in Amazon appstore, but I was unsure if it was the latest version.
I have already received a reply, and they agree with my observations and to look into my feature request. They are even considering incorporating a widget to handle the on-screen notification (though I hope it will be a configurable option, not a replacement, for the notification bar icon). I would encourage anyone with an interest in this app (it does many other things) to try it out and provide feedback and/or constructive criticism.
 
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New version going up in next 24 hours. Addresses much of My Lucky's comments above. SMS replies are almost natural, intuitive now.

Also really excited about what I am currently calling "GASP", for "GPS At Shutdown Point": in the fraction of a second left before a (lost) phone's battery dies completely (or the phone's switched off), PhoneLeash will send out the phone's location. This has nothing to do with SMS forwarding of course, but you heard it here first.
 
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PhoneLeash version 1.5 is posted (www.tinyurl.com/phoneleashfree).

Added 2 new commands "tolastsender" and "allrepliesto [phonenumber]" - they send your reply to last sender, or if you are in an active SMS chat, use "allrepliesto [xxxxxxxxxx]" to send all future messages to [xxxxxxxxxx] until you turn it off by simply saying "allrepliesto". This should look great with HeyWire.

Also
- Notification on phone bootup and shutdown
- First ever GASP implementation ;-) : GASP ("GPS At Shutdown Point") sends out your phone's GPS location just as the phone begins to shutdown!

Take a look!
 
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Hello - I just posted some details and screencaps of how easy PhoneLeash v 1.5 makes replying to incoming SMS from your remote, forwarding destination (such as another phone/Google Voice/HeyWire). Screencaps show HeyWire since thats what started this thread. :) You can also see in these screencaps that all the message overhead is gone. Now messages to SMS destinations come in simply as "<from number and name> | < message content>"

One of the valid points in Mr Lucky's review of PhoneLeash is that it shouldn't cause additional texts to get sent out due to PhoneLeash wanting to advertise itself on replies. Now, PhoneLeash likes some self-promotion :D but not at the cost of making users spend more than they bargained for, so we tested and can confirm this is not happening. PhoneLeash will not increase the total number texts it takes for your reply - if there is room we'll add the tagline. So if you reply with a 160 char message (exactly 1 SMS), no tagline. If you reply with a 240 char message (2 SMS), each message will have the tagline, you're still sending out only 2 SMS'. The yellow bubbles in the screencap below are the replies being sent by PhoneLeash.

forwarding-long-sms.png


Thanks!

PVS
support AT gearandroid SEE OH EM
 
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UPDATE: Making good progress with PhoneLeash, but just to leave no stone unturned, I tried two additional apps today (which both turned out to be colossal FAILS).

1. Total SMS Control - Looked promising, but uninstalled because it uses AirPush. This app is tricky to uninstall because it appears in the Settings > Applications > Manage applications list as "Android System Storage" :rolleyes: There is also a paid version of this app, but at $29.99, plus considering that the dev would stoop so low as to use AirPush on the "free" version... NO THANKS.

2. SMS Block and Forward - This is a paid app (nominal) but it seemed so simple to setup, I though I'd give it a try. The instructions for entering the forward number are straightforward... prefix with country code. I'm in the U.S., so I tried 1 and +1 followed by the 10 digit number. It returned an error on both. It also failed with just the 10 digit number. REFUND and UNINSTALL!
 
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This is turning into quite the authoritative thread on all things SMS forwarding :) Another app I hear about in this connection is DeskSMS (Miketg11 mentions it as being $ 4.99 / year). Maybe have a go at that too - hopefully there is a free trial period?

PhoneLeash feature updates are still in the "In" tray. I took the time instead to update the website some, it was hopelessly out of date. Who knew making a little app (and free!) would mean so many late nights!
 
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In my never ending quest for the perfect SMS/MMS forward & delete app, I made a discovery today. There are multiple apps out there with the same name but by different authors. I'll set the record straight, so that I don't give a negative review to an app I never tried.

It seems there are four apps called "SMS Forwarder." The one I tried (that failed to forward to HeyWire) was by Kaan Yamanyar. Yasmani also offers a version, AWA "SMS Forwarder Free." They are highly rated and seem like they would be very useful for someone... just not me. There is also an app with the same name by Technicaljar.com, which I did not try (does not meet criteria). Finally, there is the version offered by Migital IA (also "SMS Forwarder Lite"), which I have already commented on in the first post.

There is also another version of "SMS Forwarding" (commented on in first post), by Kwanovations. However, it did not offer anything beyond what the free apps already do nicely. The one commented on in the first post is by Tony Shen.
 
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... the perfect SMS/MMS forward & delete app ...

Whats your take on MMS forwarding? It can be done though less elegantly due to some Android API limitations, just haven't heard anyone ask for it real loud.

Btw, another feature thats high up on the list for the next version of PhoneLeash is disabling forwarding selectively for some numbers. It appears there are some apps that use SMS quietly (so no notifications come up in stock app) but PhoneLeash sees them anyway and forwards them on.
 
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Whats your take on MMS forwarding?
For me, it falls into the "nice to have" category. Some of the apps I've tried handle it, but many don't. As long as the MMS message doesn't get ignored or rejected, I'm fine with it.


PVS said:
Btw, another feature thats high up on the list for the next version of PhoneLeash is disabling forwarding selectively for some numbers. It appears there are some apps that use SMS quietly (so no notifications come up in stock app) but PhoneLeash sees them anyway and forwards them on.
I can understand why you'd want to include it, but I have no use for such a feature. Your isea of allowing exceptions to a general rule is better than the "whitelist only" approach I've seen taken in other apps. The feature I do want included is for the messages to either be deleted after forwarding or inhibited from ever appearing in the native messaging app. Several of the apps I've tried have this functionality, though I'm not sure how it's implemented.
 
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The feature I do want included is for the messages to either be deleted after forwarding or inhibited from ever appearing in the native messaging app. Several of the apps I've tried have this functionality, though I'm not sure how it's implemented.

Almost there with the option to delete-on-forward (we're inhibiting). There'll also be the option to store (or not) remote replies, for symmetry. So you could have a full SMS conversation ostensibly using the phone, with no log of it!

Watch this space!
 
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can someone tell me if i have, or had, any of these types of secret apps on my phone?

I have reasons to believe a certain person put one on my phone. I recently hard reset my phone but I'm still wondering if it happened, or if it's somehow still happening. Before finally wiping my phone though, I went in and analyzed the apps and services/processes, ran all sorts of spyware, etc.

Is there any other method of bugging someone's phone like this? The person who I suspect did something to my phone borrowed it a couple of times for not very long (right in front of me too, I tried sort of keeping an eye on my phone to see if it was ok, I am always quite paranoid about something like this happening. I think my texts are being forwarded to another phone.
 
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http://androidforums.com/android-lo...ware-sms-tracker-some-other-form-malware.html

This is my original thread btw. Any input (in either thread) is appreciated, thanks.

Also, one last thought: Is there any other more practical ways of "hacking" into someone's phone? For example, going into their settings and setting up their email to "sync" with your phone, or using Google Voice, etc?

Again, any input/thoughts appreciated.
 
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In the course of my investigations, I discovered that there are apps that can surreptitiously monitor and forward your activities on the phone. Most of these apps exist on the premise of parents keeping tabs on their kids. However, if you wiped and hard reset your phone, I think you are fine now.

BTW, for anyone interested, I am beta-testing the next release of PhoneLeash and it looks very promising so far.
 
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The latest version of PhoneLeash with a truckload of features is now on the Android Market.

The full announcement is here, but thought I'll leave a word in the thread thats focused on SMS forwarding, and has helped guide the product so much.

You can now choose to delete texts forwarded out from your phone. Your replies can also either be stored in your phone text store, or just silently pass through. So you could have entire conversations using your phone without leaving any trace of it, I guess!

You can also block numbers that you don't want any SMS forwarded from. One of our users who was forwarding pages to his work email called it the "girlfriend rule"!

You can export a full day's SMS (inbound and outbound) using the smslog <date> command. It creates a really neat view in email -- almost a mirror. Looking for feedback on this feature.

There are other features related to phone locating (wifi scan, battery status, better GPS) etc look at the announcement for details on those.

Thanks Mr Lucky for beta testing and providing great product reviews.
 
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