Tablets are moving up pretty quickly. A lot of people are even using their tablets more then they use their laptop or desktop. With everything they can do, it really isn’t all that surprising. Unfortunately there are still things that we wish our tablets could do to make things just a little easier. No on really wants to hold a 10″ screen to the side of their head for phone calls, but an ability to send/receive text messages would be nice.
As luck would have it, another very talented developer over at XDA has solved this problem for us. Dev howettl, has created an app called TexTab. What it will allow you to do is communicate via Bluetooth between you phone and your tablet allowing you to send and recieve texts as if you were on your phone. System requirements are pretty standard, an Android phone on 2.1+ and a tablet on 2.1+. Anyone that is on anything less should really buy some new toys if possible, or start modding. :0) (we can help you out ya know.) Here is what the dev has listed in his thread –
App Features:
– Honeycomb optimized, though not required
– Push menu button to connect devices via bluetooth, with option to select a device to automatically connect to in settings
– Conversation threads use your Google contact information to display contact info
– Widget with button to enable/disable service, and displays connection informationKnown Bugs:
– Connection sometimes unreliable
– Service restarts on Asus Transformer if the keyboard dock is attached or removed, requiring the user to re-connect
– Messages not saving to outbox on some devices
– Contact picker only allows sending to one phone number for each contact, even if they have multiple phone numbers. Temporary fix: manually type the phone number to send to in the Phone Number field
– Phone numbers with country codes sometimes not synchronizing properlyFuture Development/Requested Features:
– Wifi functionality for increased range
– UI improvements
– Option to sync contacts with phone rather than cloud
– SMS delivery reports on tablet with option to resend if failed
– Sync sms history with phone
– Option to mute phone notifications
– Mark incoming messages as “read” on phone
– Ability to interact with message contents (click links, copy text)
– suggestions?
Installation is pretty straight forward. Pick up the file from howettl, place a copy of the apk on both devices and install. Make sure Bluetooth is enable on both devices and that you have them paired. That’s pretty much all there is to it. It is still being worked on and as you can see he has lots of plans for the app. Head on over to howettl’s XDA-Developer page for all relevant information.
Although I do happen to have a tablet in my possession, It isn’t anything to brag about or test this with. My apologies.
Source: XDA
