How can I receive SMS including short codes while in France?
I'm in France for a month, and I got a local SIM card to avoid paying very high international roaming rates from my home carrier.
However, I often need to receive SMS messages from various companies, banks, PayPal, my ISP, etc. so I can do business things while traveling (this is a working vacation for me).
I have an app on my computer that can see most text messages that I get, but I have discovered that SMS messages sent from short code numbers are not visible. They also don't seem to be possible to forward via various services I've looked into.
It's not really an option for me to port my US number to another carrier (like Google Voice) for just one month away from home. (I'm not becoming a digital nomad, just leaving the country for longer than usual.)
Is there any way to be able to receive or forward these messages so that I can receive them on my French phone number or else on my computer?
Best Answer
There are three options which may or may not work well for you:
Forwarding
You keep your US phone back home in the US and try to have SMS messages forwarded while travelling. You will need to make sure your phone stays connected while you are away, though that shouldn't be too difficult.
In order to have SMS forwarded somehow, either your operator has an option to do so. I understand Verizon does, but it works only partially.
So you might try and put an app on your phone which will forward incoming SMS messages to email or any other phone. Note the difference between your phone doing the forwarding or your operator doing a cc of any of your SMS for you to some app over the Internet.
N.B.: It might be by full purpose that certain types of SMS are not forwarded to the app on your PC for security reasons.
What will make your life difficult is that Google decided pretty recently to ban a lot of SMS forwarder apps from their Playstore. Again as a mean to prevent fraud and enhace security. This will lead to the fact that you may find lots of "how to forward SMS" articles on the Internet, just you will not find the apps mentioned anymore.
There are some still / again available but I found many of them not quite fit for the job. For example, some of them don't work well with your phone's power management. You unused phone will go to sleep at some point and will not get waked up far enough for the forwarding app to forward the SMS once it arrives. Some apps need 10-15 minutes to forward, which is next to useless for SMS that are confirmations which are valid only for 5 minutes.
Your milage may vary ... The problem is that by the time you may find out it doesn't work as expected there is literally an ocean between your and your US phone.
Take your US phone (or SIM) with you
In a comment you say Verizon will charge you 10 USD a day if you roam. But I understand this will be the case if you want to use your minutes and US data in Europe, which is not at all what you want. You just want to receive SMS messages.
So do not buy any "traveller plan" or anything but just make sure roaming as such is enabled on your US sim card in case it isn't by default. Make sure you do not switch on data roaming on your US phone while in Europe. I assume you will not incurr any charges than but you will receive your SMS messages.
Buying any non-smart cheap GSM phone to put your US SIM in (like a Nokia 105 or 3310 for example) and you have a perfect SMS receiver device and can use your french SIM in your Android phone.
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How do I enable short code text messages?
Device instructions may vary.How can I receive text messages while abroad?
To completely avoid these costs overseas be sure to set your phone to AIRPLANE MODE. The simplest way to ensure you won't be charged for roaming is to put your phone in Airplane Mode. Airplane mode will prevent you from using cellular data abroad as well as receiving SMS messages and phone calls.Do short codes work internationally?
Short codes do not work internationally and are country-specific. For example, a US short code can only send and receive messages in the US through the carriers that approved that short code, and the same rules apply for Canada and the UK, as well as other countries that support short codes.Why can I not receive short code messages?
If you still don't receive a text message response, even though you're using a different short code, this means that your wireless plan doesn't support short code messaging. In this case, you'll need to call your wireless phone provider to enable it.Receive SMS Online For Free-Need A Verification Code or Private Texting? | Uncover Fraud
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Answer 2
The Verizon Message+ app will let you send and receive text messages from any computer or phone, even when the phone does not have the SIM card for your Verizon service. It uses an Internet connection, so it does not incur any additional costs.
If you don't want to install an app, you can also send and receive SMS from the Verizon web site.
Answer 3
There are some VoIP providers (but you need to purchase), with the ability to forward your SMS to your email or your personal and secured https. The virtual SMS number is presented in the code of one of the mobile operators and is provided as a separate service and you can control your SMS carefully.
P.S. If you know how to code and you want to forward your SMS to messengers, take a look at these articles can be helpful:
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Mary Taylor, Alexander Suhorucov, Karolina Grabowska, Anete Lusina