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Show HN: Online SMS, My Weekend Project

21 points by spicavigo 14y ago

Last Saturday, I made this app for sending SMS from your computer via your phone. It consists of an Android application and a Python GAE server. The source code is available on github. You can read more about it at [http://fauzism.com/post/37587975976/once-upon-a-saturday]a

xugle 14y ago
You might say it's useless (in your blog post) but would it surprise you to know that there's a venture funded startup doing pretty much what your weekend project does (with extra bells and whistles perhaps). http://mightytext.net/ http://mightytext.net/ <--- This one
- spicavigo 14y ago
  Damn! Its quite similar. Thanks for the link :)
  - CWilliams1013 14y ago
    There's also DeskSMS, from the author of ClockworkMod and ROM Manager: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.desktopsms https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdut...
arihersh 14y ago
This is very cool-- send text messages easily without ever leaving your laptop or having to deal with the phone's keys. For anyone over 30, texting from a real keyboard makes a lot of sense.
- osmotw 14y ago
  Good for anyone sitting at a desk monitoring multiple social media and sms inquiries from sales contacts.
espadagroup 14y ago
Ha I actually pay for BrowserTexting, which does this. Mostly because I want to be able to text at work without having my phone out.
lucaspiller 14y ago
[Shameless plug] I also wrote one of these a couple of years ago. I wanted it to run entirely from the phone though rather than all my messages going through some third party. I ended up using Restlet (http://www.restlet.org/ http://www.restlet.org/) as the server, and writing a client in Backbone (in the early days). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.stackednotion.textjs.rosebud&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.stackednot... (I haven't touched it for a while, I don't even have an Android phone any more so no idea if it still works :P)
readme 14y ago
I was thinking of doing this exact thing, but I started another project. Useless? I disagree entirely. Having a place in the browser to text from is priceless. Perhaps the most obvious use case is texting without taking my phone out of my pocket? The next most obvious having a better and searchable UI to filter through texts? It's a good project.
- phireal 14y ago
  If you're on Android, such functionality can be gained by installing something like Airdroid[0] which gives you something approaching a desktop experience of the contents and functionality of your phone. I use it to type out messages from my browser rather than trying to do so from the much smaller and less practical keyboard on my phone. [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sand.airdroid https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sand.airdr...
habosa 14y ago
Did you use Google Cloud Messaging? If so, any chance you could post a tutorial or at least your thoughts on setting it up? There are a surprising lack of those around.
- spicavigo 14y ago
  Yes I did. Right now I am using it in conjunction with Urban Ship, however, I will soon delink it. Would try to post some basic tutorial for GCM and let you know when its done. Tell me how I can contact you.
  - karl_gluck 14y ago
    I'd also be interested in knowing more about GCM. Hit me up at karl.gluck@gmail.com if you get a chance to write something up! Thanks for a view into a cool project, too.
  - habosa 14y ago
    That sounds very interesting. Shoot me an email at sam [at] habosa [dot] com whenever you finish it (or even if you don't).
adunar 14y ago
Definitely not useless! Using an Android app as an SMS gateway is convenient for personal texting, but it's even more valuable for organizations working in developing countries -- where SMS is even more important, but services like Twilio don't provide local phone numbers and getting a shortcode can cost thousands of dollars. My start-up (http://telerivet.com http://telerivet.com) works with a bunch of organizations that pay us for a more advanced version of essentially the same basic concept. (For example, Kiva.org uses our system to communicate with their borrowers in Kenya via an Android SMS gateway.)

21 points by spicavigo 14y ago

xugle 14y ago

You might say it's useless (in your blog post) but would it surprise you to know that there's a venture funded startup doing pretty much what your weekend project does (with extra bells and whistles perhaps). http://mightytext.net/ http://mightytext.net/ <--- This one

spicavigo 14y ago
Damn! Its quite similar. Thanks for the link :)
- CWilliams1013 14y ago
  There's also DeskSMS, from the author of ClockworkMod and ROM Manager: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.desktopsms https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdut...

arihersh 14y ago

This is very cool-- send text messages easily without ever leaving your laptop or having to deal with the phone's keys. For anyone over 30, texting from a real keyboard makes a lot of sense.

osmotw 14y ago
Good for anyone sitting at a desk monitoring multiple social media and sms inquiries from sales contacts.

espadagroup 14y ago

Ha I actually pay for BrowserTexting, which does this. Mostly because I want to be able to text at work without having my phone out.

lucaspiller 14y ago

[Shameless plug] I also wrote one of these a couple of years ago. I wanted it to run entirely from the phone though rather than all my messages going through some third party. I ended up using Restlet (http://www.restlet.org/ http://www.restlet.org/) as the server, and writing a client in Backbone (in the early days). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.stackednotion.textjs.rosebud&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.stackednot... (I haven't touched it for a while, I don't even have an Android phone any more so no idea if it still works :P)

readme 14y ago

I was thinking of doing this exact thing, but I started another project. Useless? I disagree entirely. Having a place in the browser to text from is priceless. Perhaps the most obvious use case is texting without taking my phone out of my pocket? The next most obvious having a better and searchable UI to filter through texts? It's a good project.

phireal 14y ago
If you're on Android, such functionality can be gained by installing something like Airdroid[0] which gives you something approaching a desktop experience of the contents and functionality of your phone. I use it to type out messages from my browser rather than trying to do so from the much smaller and less practical keyboard on my phone. [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sand.airdroid https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sand.airdr...

habosa 14y ago

Did you use Google Cloud Messaging? If so, any chance you could post a tutorial or at least your thoughts on setting it up? There are a surprising lack of those around.

spicavigo 14y ago
Yes I did. Right now I am using it in conjunction with Urban Ship, however, I will soon delink it. Would try to post some basic tutorial for GCM and let you know when its done. Tell me how I can contact you.
- karl_gluck 14y ago
  I'd also be interested in knowing more about GCM. Hit me up at karl.gluck@gmail.com if you get a chance to write something up! Thanks for a view into a cool project, too.
- habosa 14y ago
  That sounds very interesting. Shoot me an email at sam [at] habosa [dot] com whenever you finish it (or even if you don't).

adunar 14y ago

Definitely not useless! Using an Android app as an SMS gateway is convenient for personal texting, but it's even more valuable for organizations working in developing countries -- where SMS is even more important, but services like Twilio don't provide local phone numbers and getting a shortcode can cost thousands of dollars. My start-up (http://telerivet.com http://telerivet.com) works with a bunch of organizations that pay us for a more advanced version of essentially the same basic concept. (For example, Kiva.org uses our system to communicate with their borrowers in Kenya via an Android SMS gateway.)