Sending SMS messages with Address Book
David Cleland has written an excellent tutorial 
on Address Book’s little known ability to send SMS (or text) messages through a mobile (or cell) phone using Bluetooth.
He covers the process of pairing a mobile phone with Address Book over Bluetooth and how to use Address Book’s SMS interface.
Once it is all set up, sending an SMS through Address Book is as easy as right-clicking on the mobile number of an Address Book contact and selecting “Send SMS”.
Address Book offers a simple dialog for entering the message:
It’s a little tricky to set up, but easier to use than trying to type on the cramped keypad of a mobile phone. So frequent texters will reap the greatest benefit.
Similar Posts:
- Replace Leopard Address Book’s missing SMS feature
- Restore Leopard Address Book’s power to dial and text
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- Troubleshooting Address Book sync problems
- BuddyPop: Quick, pop-up access to Address Book
Tags: Address Book, Apple Mail Tips, Bluetooth, not apple mail, not mail.app, SMS, text message
March 25th, 2007 at 6:12 am
Actually, as a non-frequent texter I feel I benefit more! Frequent texters can actually do it, whereas I spend half an hour trying to type hello or something. SMS through address book is a must-have feature for me!
March 26th, 2007 at 5:09 am
There are two big problems with this, though, which haven’t yet been addressed:
1. There’s no way to send a message to multiple recipients, or at least, none that I’ve discovered so far.
2. There’s no way to use the long message feature of most modern phones to send a >160 char message by concatenating multiple shorter messages.
Also, my Nokia 6280, a Symbian Series 40 phone, does not properly report received messages, which means I have to read the messages on my phone anyway, rather defeating the purpose of having the bluetooth link in the first place.
March 26th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
This is certainly one of my favourite uses of Address Book. I can’t stand texting on my phone – this makes it far easier.
BTW, you can also use Address Book to send SMS through Skype.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
BluePhoneElite is a great piece of software that enables the same functionality with lots of other useful features.
March 28th, 2007 at 5:50 am
Yes the skype feature is a good one as it works with most bluetooth phones even when the address book sms feature (described in the tutorial) does not work.
May 18th, 2007 at 4:32 am
For some reason, this is not working with my Nokia N73. I discover my phone with the bluetooth set up, pair it and can transfer file and do a complete iSync, perfectly. But when I click on any contact to send a sms, the Send SMS is grayed out!
Help!!
December 12th, 2007 at 5:14 am
Just to note for posterity that this no longer works with Leopard – Apple seem to have removed SMS messaging from Address Book completely.