From SMS to Evernote

[mak2011]

I recently located a nice app that forwards SMSs to Evernote, which is great since SMS has become an important bucket for potential actions and reference stuff.

If you're using Evernote for your GTD system try out http://www.mysms.com/

 

[TesTeq]

SMS to Evernote?

I recently located a nice app that forwards SMSs to Evernote, which is great since SMS has become an important bucket for potential actions and reference stuff.

If you're using Evernote for your GTD system try out http://www.mysms.com/

Why would anybody send SMS to Evernote when she can send an e-mail or use Evernote client software?

 

[Oogiem]

Why would anybody send SMS to Evernote when she can send an e-mail or use Evernote client software?

You must not get any inputs to your system via SMS. If SMS is an inbox, and Evernote is your list manager it is critical you have a way to get those things into your system. I can see the usefulness.

Personally I am struggling with how to get SMS messages into my own Omnifocus system. Sure, not many are really inputs but a fraction of them are and need to be captured into my trusted system.

 

[johnaohman]

Why would anybody send SMS to Evernote when she can send an e-mail or use Evernote client software?

I think the original poster is referring to forwarding SMS messages that you receive on your phone to EN.

 

[mak2011]

Why would anybody send SMS to Evernote when she can send an e-mail or use Evernote client software?

If you get an SMS with info you need to process, how does it go from mobile phone into your inbasket? Specially if your GTD system is mainly digital

 

[Folke]

I am used to processing and rephrasing

If you get an SMS with info you need to process, how does it go from mobile phone into your inbasket? Specially if your GTD system is mainly digital

I do not have that problem. My overall GTD Inbox (i.e. where I capture things or where people send me things) consists of an awful lot of different capture tools, for example handwritten notes, email, SMS, Trello boards, shared calendars, physical intrays in various places, SMS and even short-term memory in the case of conversations (which I "post-capture" or "pre-process" subsequently into paper or digital form.)

I have a habit of checking all the various "compartments" of my overall GTD Inbox when I do the processing. I find that even when some of them are in digital format, I have virtually no use of any of the text they contain. I virtually always need to rephrase it into distinct actions (or merge them somehow into already existing projects etc).

Therefore, I normally do not even forward emails to my task manager. I find it a waste of time and energy for me. And SMS messages I would not consider forwarding. I basically enter everything via the task manager's regular "New task" feature.

But despite all this, the service recommended in the initial post could still be very valuable for an entirely different kind of purpose. If you need a good "correspondence archive" (for Reference), then it can be valuable to have SMS messages equally well documented (archived) as your email or paper correspondence.

 

[mak2011]

Tough crowd

 

[TesTeq]

In Poland it is pretty easy!

I think the original poster is referring to forwarding SMS messages that you receive on your phone to EN.

I see. It can be useful. In Poland we don't need any special third party services. Mobile network operators make it possible to forward SMS messages to e-mail accounts (and Evernote provides one for you).

For example in Plus GSM network you send an SMS in the following format:

(your_evernote_mailbox@evernote.com) (Subject) Message to my Evernote inbox!​

to the "magic" phone number 119 999.

Pretty easy! And without any additional charges.

 

[Oogiem]

I see. It can be useful. In Poland we don't need any special third party services. Mobile network operators make it possible to forward SMS messages to e-mail accounts (and Evernote provides one for you).

Not true here depending on the plan. And in fact most phone plans charge for SMS messages, sometimes a lot. So the ability to send the message to a separate place easily, on the phone is a good thing.

 

[Folke]

I agree it can be a good thing - in my case probably more for general basic archiving (backup; unprocessed reference) than as an inbox or as "deliberately saved" or "organized" reference.

But I have a question: From the mysms site, I cannot see anything about this Evernote integration. How is that done?

And also: If you use this for manual, deliberate forwarding of selected SMS messages only, how is this service better than simply forwarding it by email in the usual way?

 

[mak2011]

I agree it can be a good thing - in my case probably more for general basic archiving (backup; unprocessed reference) than as an inbox or as "deliberately saved" or "organized" reference.

But I have a question: From the mysms site, I cannot see anything about this Evernote integration. How is that done?

And also: If you use this for manual, deliberate forwarding of selected SMS messages only, how is this service better than simply forwarding it by email in the usual way?

I use it on a droid phone; you download the client and add-on called mysmsevernote (you can find both on the google app market).
After granting the app access to evernote it creates a notebook called mysms and stores all your incoming messages to this notebook. The only drawback is that it creates a tag for each sender, which could be a pain, though you could always delete these tags later

 

[bcmyers2112]

Tough crowd

If it makes you feel any better I use Evernote all the time and I could see a use for this. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[TesTeq]

I still don't get it.

Not true here depending on the plan. And in fact most phone plans charge for SMS messages, sometimes a lot. So the ability to send the message to a separate place easily, on the phone is a good thing.

How this method is better than sending an e-mail to my Evernote account? Or using Evernote app? I don't get it.

 

[mak2011]

How this method is better than sending an e-mail to my Evernote account? Or using Evernote app? I don't get it.

With mysms this goes on automatically, which for me at least, is an advantage since I do get a lot of action oriented input and important references stuff via SMS. Though I can see how this is not necceraily considered a major advantage, however the more I can automate the process of capturing and processing stuff the better.

 

[mak2011]

If it makes you feel any better I use Evernote all the time and I could see a use for this. Thanks for the heads up.

Your most welcome

 

[TesTeq]

Yet another closed messaging system?

With mysms this goes on automatically, which for me at least, is an advantage since I do get a lot of action oriented input and important references stuff via SMS. Though I can see how this is not necceraily considered a major advantage, however the more I can automate the process of capturing and processing stuff the better.

What goes on automatically? According to http://www.mysms.com/en/faq/faqmessenger:

To whom can I send messages?

With mysms friends you can send free text messages to other mysms users worldwide. For every message you send, you’ll receive a free confirmation that the message has been received.

Tell your friends about mysms and send free invitations. Click on "mysms friends" and choose a contact from the list. After this contact has set up an account, you’ll be informed about your new mysms friend.

Why am I not able to send texts via my mobile carrier?

With the mysms Messenger for iPhone you’re able to send free mysms friends messages to other mysms users, no matter if your friend owns an iPhone or Android. Due to restrictions of Apple it is not possible to send texts via your mobile carrier or messages via a connector like with our mysms Android phone app. This is the reason, why the app on iPhone only shows your mysms friends messages.

Correct me if I'm wrong: on iPhone mysms is just yet another closed messaging system not connected to real SMS communication channel.

 

[mak2011]

What goes on automatically? According to http://www.mysms.com/en/faq/faqmessenger:

Correct me if I'm wrong: on iPhone mysms is just yet another closed messaging system not connected to real SMS communication channel.

I don't know how it works on the iPhone but on android it sends and receives carrier messages just fine and I know of no one in my correspondence who is using this app. So NO it's not a closed systems.

And no offense but you seem to by hypothesizing about the app too much; if you use evernote and need a way to get your SMSs to evernote try it out; if it sucks delete it. Easy and simple.

Frankly if evernote develops an add-on that let's me save SMS directly to the app I'd use it instead. Till then mysms appears to be the most convenient tool for this purpose.

That said, I frankly haven't tried sending SMSs to my evernote email; just didn't occur to me so it sounds worth testing; though I assume I would still need that extra step of selecting then emailing, which I currently don't need to with mysms

 

[Folke]

And I assume, if I were to use it mainly as a general backup/archive, that I would not even have to send anything at all to Evernote - mysms has its own web app, where I could probably find old messages. Or am I wrong?

I wo der what happens with iMessage if you use mysms? Will it still be free to text other iphone users (if they do not have mysms)?

 

[TesTeq]

Works on Android and does not have full functionality on iPhone.

And no offense but you seem to by hypothesizing about the app too much; if you use evernote and need a way to get your SMSs to evernote try it out; if it sucks delete it. Easy and simple.

Oh, I didn't know that quoting the official Frequently Asked Questions document provided by the app developer is "hypothesizing" in English.

My point is that it probably works on Android and does not have full functionality on iPhone because of Apple rules.

 

[mak2011]

Oh, I didn't know that quoting the official Frequently Asked Questions document provided by the app developer is "hypothesizing" in English.

My point is that it probably works on Android and does not have full functionality on iPhone because of Apple rules.

Well, I'll have to concede on this one; it does seem to be more fit for Androind than for iPhones. Also there iPad version is not free!

So far its biggest strength is that it automatically forwards your messages to your evernote account, making processing SMSs a bit more easier. Frankly almost anything that can be automated is a plus. I haven't yet tried to use it for any other purpose.