Learn How to set up and Use Android Messages on a PC: Send and receive Android texts and chats on your computer
Your phone is your communication hub, but we spend a lot of time on our computers. Wouldn’t it be great if you could reply to that incoming text without having to pick up your phone and use a different device?
Android Messages for web is one of a few great ways to make this happen! We’ll show you how to do it.
Since June of 2018, anyone using the latest version of the Messages app on their phone (Android 5.0 or greater) can send and receive Android messages on a PC. It’s pretty simple to do and it can be a big time saver.
This only works with Google’s Messages app, which you can download from the Google Play Store.
This is How to Use Android Web Messages
Sending and receiving Android Messages on a PC using your web browser is a simple process that you can set up in just a couple of minutes. Follow these steps to get started:
- Open the Messages app on your phone.
- Tap the hamburger button (three vertical dots).
- Tap Messages for web.
- Tap QR code scanner.
- On your computer, open a web browser and go to http://messages.google.com. Scan the QR Code with your phone.
- Your browser will prompt you to allow notifications. This will allow you to receive new incoming text messages as they arrive. Click Allow.
- Click OKto remember the computer, so you don’t have to repeat this process every time you want to get messages in your browser.
That’s it! As long as you have the browser tab open, you’ll receive text messages and you’ll be able to reply without picking up your phone. If you close the browser tab, as long as you chose Remember as described above, all you need to do is head back to http://messages.google.com and you’ll be right back in there.
Features Available in Android Web Messages
Messages for the web are also convenient because you can do almost everything in your browser as you can on your phone. Things like emoji, stickers, and attachments are accessible in the tools on the right of the text box.
An added benefit is you can include attachments that are on your computer. The downside is you cannot include things that are on your phone, such as location data, photos were taken, etc. You also do not have access to features like Google Assistant information like restaurants, movies, or weather information. One other notable missing feature is the ability to send a voice clip.
In all, it’s not a perfect substitute for picking up your phone, but some of the missing features are fairly niche—your mileage will vary in this case.
How to Log Out of Android Messages for Web
If you ever want to stop using a computer for texting, you can. In the Android App, tap the hamburger button and choose Messages for the web. At the bottom of the page, you can sign out of a single computer by clicking X on the right or all computers by clicking Sign out of all computers.
On the web, click the hamburger button and then select Sign out.
