Divert text messages from one phone to another

[Dinosaur]

I apologize - this may be a really naff question - but I am hopeless with mobile phones. Can anyone tell me if you can set up an auto-divert so that text messages coming in to one phone in country 1 can be forwarded automatically to another phone in country 2? Do most phones have this functionality and, if so, how do you do it?

regards
Clueless in Phuket

[baloo]

I'm not aware of any phone that allows you to do that.

[Jedi]

AFAIK, an SMS can only be delivered to the number it was originally sent to. I don't believe there are any carriers that offer SMS redirection as a service.

[Dinosaur]

Thanks guys. What a pity. I'm trying to get around a problem but will have to think of another way.

[Burbage]

Give the phone in country 1 to someone in country 1 who knows how to work a mobile phone.

[BoD]

Would getting a dual SIM phone help?

[Dinosaur]

Give the phone in country 1 to someone in country 1 who knows how to work a mobile phone.

That did occur to me as a possibility.

[Dinosaur]

Would getting a dual SIM phone help?

We thought about that but doesn't help as whilst SIM 2 would work in country 1, SIM1 would not work in country 2, if you follow my drift - well I know what I mean - but thanks for the thought anyhow.

[BoD]

Well they would if you had roaming on the 2 cards. That is an expense you are trying to avoid I guess, but do you get charged for receiving SMS when roaming? If not, with both SIMs in the same phone there would not be a need to send an SMS from a roaming SIM to a non-roaming one, and there would be no cost (or something like that vaguely ish maybe)

[expat yorkshire]

Even if roaming there is no charge for receiving sms , so cant you get the dual sim phone and convert one of the accounts to roaming. Most phone numbers have roaming option even the cheap hello sims in singapore

[Dinosaur]

The Thai phone doesn't work abroad - it's a pay-as-you-go as that's the only sort I am "allowed" to have here unfortunately. A lot of things I cannot have/allowed to do

[Pinklepurr]

I had the same problem in Singapore PK, so whenever travelling I used to just get prepaid sim cards etc. It was a total pain but the only solution I ever came up with.

[Burbage]

Yeah, but that doesn't work. I'f you're waiting for a message on the Thai phone then the message will go to the Thai phone sim card, so if you use a different sim card you won't get the message. As I understand the problem, we want to get messages sent to the Thai sim card's number forwarded to another number.

The only suggestion I have is that these sort of functions may work via email rather than sms. So if you got one of the fancy PDA phones it might, as long as it's on power and connected to the internet, be able to relay messages from the SMS mailbox to to your email account, which you could keep track of in an internet cafe. Means you have to borrow or buy and learn to use a new kind of phone if your current phone doesn't do this.

[Jedi]

PDAs dont have auto mail forwarding and even if they did, SMS is totally separate from Email.

[Burbage]

PDAs dont have auto mail forwarding and even if they did, SMS is totally separate from Email.

It's all digital data Jedi, once it gets as far as being stored on the device. If they haven't got this function then they should. Bet you could do it on an iPhone.

[Burbage]

http://pda.wareseeker.com/free-forward-sms/

[Jedi]

It's all digital data Jedi, once it gets as far as being stored on the device. If they haven't got this function then they should. Bet you could do it on an iPhone.

It would be pretty difficult to run such an app on an iPhone given that it doesn't allow background applications. Not to mention the security concerns of opening SMS to any application (which also applies to PDAs).

[Bender]

AFAIK, an SMS can only be delivered to the number it was originally sent to. I don't believe there are any carriers that offer SMS redirection as a service.

SMS forwarding is technically possible as it's part of the GSM spec, but very few carriers offer it. 3 Hong Kong does it, not that it's any use in this situation.

I reckon the options are:

• human-powered forwarding;
• get the originator of the SMS to send to a different number
• forget it

[Jedi]

SMS forwarding is technically possible as it's part of the GSM spec

URL please.

[Burbage]

Please note the conditional voice in the message where I made the suggestion.

There is no reason that it couldn't be done. In the end a text message has to be rendered in text on the screen of the phone, so no matter what format it starts life as it ends up as text which can then be converted into any other file format you want. Nobody is forcing anyone to use an iPhone.

[Dinosaur]

I reckon the options are:

• human-powered forwarding;
• get the originator of the SMS to send to a different number
• forget it

Yup.

Option 1 is possibility but it's a lot of SMSs we are talking about and we're a bit reluctant to ask/burden the only friends here that we trust.

Option 2 not possible. This is to do with bank transfers where the bank (thai) sends a security number to your (thai) mobile phone.

Option 3 is looking the most likely but trying to find a bank that will send stuff by email rather than phone. Mr PK thinks that he has found one but it's all in Thai at the moment . We'll get there. We're very persistent.

But thanks guys for your thoughts - much appreciated.

[Jedi]

Surely the bank allows you to change your registered phone number.

[Bender]

URL please.

http://www.myfriendwhoisasingteloptustech.com. The company was looking into implementing it some time ago, but decided it wasn't profitable enough due to low perceived demand. If number portability wasn't available they'd probably have done it.

Apparently there's all kinds of nifty stuff in the spec which has never been used. Reminds me of music CDs - part of the promised CD 'experience' was album/artist/track names, which are very rarely found on commercial CDs.

[Bender]

Option 4: Google voice SMS to email.

[baloo]

Auto-forwarding apps for the Blackberry shouldn't be far away. The BB already lets you selct an SMS and forward as either SMS, eMail or MMS.

The problem with a client based forwarding solution is that the device needs to be on to forward. A Carrier based solution would be the cleanest.