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I'm a volunteer firefighter and I receive emergency calls and at the same time an "emergency SMS". I'd like to forward those incoming SMS to a group in Telegram/WhatsApp, so my family and friends know I went to an incident.

I know there's the "Share" option in Android's SMS App. (Not using Hangouts for SMS)

But is it possible to forward all SMS from one contact automatically to a WhatsApp/Telegram group?

Searching the Google Play Store I found "Autoshare" (com.joaomgcd.autoshare) but I'm not quite sure if this would do the trick and after the watching the video I was even unsteadier...

0xpentix
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2 Answers2

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IFTTT to the rescue!

You can set IFTTT to forward an SMS from specific number to specific chat.

Steps:

  1. Create you IFTTT account if not already exists.
  2. Start the @IFTTT Telegram bot and authorize your IFTTT account.
  3. Add the @IFTTT bot to you Telegram group as admin.
  4. Choose /connect_group from the bot commands, and follow instructions.
    • If your group isn't public, you can give it a public (meaningful) name just for the connection to IFTTT and then change it back to private. You'll see the group public name and group title in IFTTT, so before connecting check that the name is understandable.
  5. Go to My Applets and choose New Applet
  6. For the +this - choose Android SMS and then New SMS received from phone number
  7. Enter the phone number from which you recieve the relevant texts.
  8. For the +that - choose Telegram and then Send message.
  9. Configure the Telegram message to be sent, you'll have some options there (Target chat, message text, web preview).
    • The message text supports basic HTML and have some parameters from the SMS connection (such as sender, text, time etc.).

I'm using it to automatically forward my post office message to my Telegram.

Important note: You said you're a firefighter, so I believe the messages are urgent. You should do some tests and check in IFTTT F.A.Q or docs about whether it's immediate or has some delay, or what they guarantee. I just tried and it around half a minute, and so it was in previous times.

arieljannai
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    Although some time has passed and I simply forwarded the SMS until now, this seems pretty much what I initially was looking for! Thanks a lot! :) – 0xpentix May 13 '18 at 21:16
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    Better late than never :) maybe it will be useful to more people! – arieljannai May 14 '18 at 08:21
  • The urgency issue in OP's case is not "how quickly are the messages forwarded", because the forwarding to friends and family (to let them know he's gone on a call) is very much secondary to letting him himself know about that call. What I'd want to verify is that no bug in the software (or its updates) ever interferes with the prompt display of the original message. This isn't so bad if the message is simply a copy of information already delivered via voice call, but if the voice call says "get in the vehicle now and I'll text you the destination in a sec" then any delay could be serious. – Silas S. Brown Sep 18 '18 at 10:02
  • A quick further question to this - This is exactly what I do right now to forward SMSes to a Telegram group, however in order to keep my SMS Inbox clean - Is it also possible to then delete the SMS from my inbox (ONLY after it has been forwarded to the selected Telegram group)? – Deep Jul 12 '19 at 02:47
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    @Deep not with IFTTT. The Android SMS service doesn't support a message deleting action – arieljannai Jul 17 '19 at 10:18
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    O don't know why, but for IFFT doesn't work properly. I am getting tons of sms and only few are forwarded. Also delay was more than 8h – Ievgen Oct 28 '20 at 07:37
  • This IFFF Not working at all, or it is no longer working. Today is 2021/10/15. – Pham X. Bach Oct 15 '21 at 07:43
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    @PhamX.Bach IFTTT changed their plans and applets, and so they became useless to me :/ – arieljannai Oct 24 '21 at 19:04
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check out my app autoforwardsms.com. The Android app is built specifically for this purpose and your scenario was the inspiration behind the app's development.

Dan Hulme
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Kerryn
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  • Hi Kerryn! Yes, this seems to be what I am looking for. What I'm not really clear about: Is it possible to forward those SMS to a messenger? The main problem: Google Play tells me that the article is not available in my country. :/ – 0xpentix Jul 17 '15 at 02:42
  • Pentix: I'm not sure to be honest if it will forward to Messenger...a good question actually. But there is now a free 7 day trial version which you are of course welcome to try at no charge. What country are you in and I'll see what's going on in PlayStore. Cheers Kerryn autoforwardsms.com – Kerryn Jul 19 '15 at 08:45
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    @Kerryn If you need to add information in response to another comment, you should [edit] your answer to do so. Posting a new answer just makes things confusing. – Dan Hulme Jan 16 '18 at 23:40