It may seem counter-intuitive to some to forward a SMS message to an email address when most devices that can receive text messages can also receive email, but sometimes you don’t have access to your phone, yet you still need access to the text messages. This could happen if you lose your phone, leave your phone at work or in the car, or simply not be able to bring it to work or some other restricted location.

I personally started using it when my customers started texting me long requests that I’d have to retype or manually forward to get into a usable form on my computer. It could also be useful for those of you who run a business on the side and want to keep your day job. You can use tools like this to forward text messages as emails to a personal assistant or your partner. For whatever the reason, you’re probably here looking for the answer, just like I was before I found the solution.

Below are solutions for how to auto-forward your text messages to email for Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, and Apple iPhones.

Android Phones

TextBusy by Gatehill Software – $1.23

I use TextBusy, which works great. It requires you to use a Gmail account to forward the emails so all of the SMS messages will be coming to you from whatever address you specify. Whatever bad reviews you see out there from August – disregard as those have been fixed by now as you can see by the latest review on September 15th. For $1.23 it’s well worth the money. It currently has 9 reviews on the Android Market.

txtForward by Electric Pocket – $3.19

txtForward txtForward automatically sends a copy of your SMS text messages to any email address you specify, for backup or as a handy way to get your messages at your desk.
Send your SMS messages automatically to any email address, and easily back them up or read them from your desktop email client. It’s available for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile too. It currently has 38 reviews on the Android Market.

SMS2Gmail by EireApps – FREE

SMS2Gmail forwards SMS and missed call information to Gmail account. This application allows you to forward your SMS messages and missed calls to a user defined gmail account, and you can activate it remotely. If your phone is at home for example and you are not, send it an SMS from a friends phone or webtext and activate this service. It currently has 57 reviews on the Android Market.

Blackberry Phones

SMS Auto Forward to Email Pro by Value Apps – $3.99

SMS Auto Forward to Email lets you forward all incoming SMS messages to an email address automatically. Very handy if you keep changing your handsets or like to delete your text messages. Keep a log/backup of all your text messages. Once installed and running, you don’t need to do anything. The app runs in the background and send every incoming text message automatically to an email address of your choice.

txtForward automatically sends a copy of your SMS text messages to any email address you specify, for backup or as a handy way to get your messages at your desk.
Send your SMS messages automatically to any email address, and easily back them up or read them from your desktop email client.

Windows Mobile

txtForward automatically sends a copy of your SMS text messages to any email address you specify, for backup or as a handy way to get your messages at your desk.
Send your SMS messages automatically to any email address, and easily back them up or read them from your desktop email client.

Palm Pre

SMS Auto Forward/Reply by Grabber Software

NOTE: This app does not work on webOS 2.x. SMS Auto Forward/Reply forwards text messages to the mobile number of your choice (number must be in your contacts). You can also send an auto-reply message to the sender. Your phone must be turned on and in coverage for this application to work. While this isn’t text-to-email, it may be the best a Palm Pre user can get. If you know of another app for Pre’s let us know in the comments.

Apple iPhones

Unfortunately, there are no apps to auto-forward text message from the iPhone (this is an opportunity for app developers!). For iPhones using firmware 3.0 or higher, manual forwarding of SMS messages is a built-in feature. To manually forward a text message, simply:

1. view the SMS text message you’d like to forward
2. select EDIT at the top of the screen
3. check off the message(s) you’d like to forward
4. tap FORWARD at the bottom right of the screen

iSMS/weiSMS

For those using older firmware, there is a third-party application for the iPhone, iSMS/weiSMS, with which it is possible to send text messages to multiple individuals as well as forward text messages.

SMSD

SMSD is a free and easy to use iPhone SMS management application which lets you delete individual Messages, backup all message through mail, manually forward messages, and manually Send/Forward messages to multiple contacts.

Have you ever lost your phone or laptop? It’s a horrifying feeling. Thankfully there are some things you can do about it before it happens to you.

The following apps or services will help you find your smartphone or notebook if they are lost or stolen. They can also be used to find the person using them if you’ve lost them – whether or not they want to be found.

Some of these are free and some are not. Whichever one you choose, it must be enabled before your phone or laptop is lost – and you must understand the security risks you’re taking to make your mobile devices more secure.

The Hidden app, whose name itself makes it hard to find, got notoriety when a blogger posted pictures online of the man who allegedly stole his Macbook laptop (below), but for Android, Blackberry, and Windows users, GadgetTrack does something similar. Hidden is only for Mac operating systems, OSX.

Blackberry Torch 9800

There are four basic things you can do if you own your own business or manage Blackberry’s for your business to save money on your coverage:

1. Ask your corporate provider if everyone is on the same corporate billing account number (BAN): Doing this ensures a base line of corporate minutes and/or data per month for all of your users. This will decrease the surprises for what should or should not be included and reduce hassles as to why messages or bills are over their quota.

2. Train those who travel the most frequently on roaming charges: Understanding roaming fees and SMS/calls is critical. Ensure that Blackberry Messenger (BBM) is used versus SMS since Canadian/North American providers charge the most in the world for texting and roaming in Canada is especially expensive.

3. Instruct users to avoid dialing 1-800 numbers while outside of the US: In the United States, 1-800 numbers simply use ‘minutes’, but outside of the US they are no longer “toll free”. International long-distance rates will apply when they are dialed and therefore simply training your users not to dial them internationally will help.

4. Isolate those who have the largest bills and revisit the their plans, specifically: User habits and behavior issues with how they are using the devices may be causing them to increase your costs without their knowledge. Once you identify what they are doing, you can instruct them on how to change habits or adjust their plan.

5.  Work with your BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) administrator to create a standard device model and operating system (OS) base:  When Blackberry users are due for a free upgrade, this allows for a smoother transition and cheaper training across the corporate board. Having to increase training time/costs to train for multiple OS versions and questions and guidance will affect the corporate budget.

If your coporation is in need of BlackBerry skills training or support, Erich Stauffer conducts workshops focusing on how to be more efficient and productive when using your BlackBerry or Android Smartphone. Most smartphone users only use 10-20% of the device functionality. Our workshops will enable your staff to use their new skills to better utilize all the dynamic functionality their device has to offer, which can make them more productive for your corporation. For more information, contact us.