In September 2013, I chose Sheffield Hallam University as my University of choice. I picked this Uni for a number of reasons: the building was a modern one that had current-gen iMacs, a large amount of equipment and a very satisfactory WiFi speed; the records showed the the student satisfaction rate was high due to nice lecturers and relaxed timetables; but most importantly because it meant moving from the dire quietness of the countryside into a hustling bustling, WiFi-getting, phone reception receiving city. This last point was one that I particularly looked forward to and the lack of was a gripe I’d had to suffer with for over a decade having lived in a very out-of-the-way part of Norfolk.
Now, throughout my first years as a phone-owed - before the days of WhatsApp, SnapChat or event Facebook Messenger - I would subject myself to writing out a text message, placing my phone on my windowsill, waiting for my phone to register some signal and then hitting the send button. As a result this would mean I’d have to once again remove myself from wherever I was to reach for that windowsill to read a text message (which in those days was maximum 160 characters long as people didn’t want to spend more than 10p on a credit unless they were going to take full use of the next 160). I even, for a short period of time, rearranged my room so that my bed was along the windowsill so I didn’t have to move myself quite so far every 5 minutes. However, in terms of practicality, mainly not being able to close my curtains resulting in sleepless nights, I admitted that it was probably best to move my bed back and just yield to the powers that were practicality.
Moving to Sheffield opened up a new lease of life for me, I no longer had to ask people to WhatsApp me and then receive their text anyway when I left the house and resultantly got signal. I no longer had to ask people to call my home phone, or use my home phone to communicate with those that text was not enough for. It was a new life to live, one where I could pick up calls, receive texts off people and become a traditional phone owner and not just feel like I own a small tablet.
However, once in Sheffield, I got a new job also, a promotional job that involved using my phone quite a bit. It required that I receive calls whilst on the street to be told where to move to next. It involved receiving texts being asked to work or sending out texts asking to work. But most important of all, receiving texts about people who want to get on the guest list for a club that I work at. For every person I get through I get an agreed income so if I can get quite a few people on the guestlist, I could potentially receive a little bit of money for doing next to nothing. This for me is something i’ve strived to do every week, three times a week (the number of nights the company I work for hold events).
Once arriving back in Norfolk, I realised that this commission could well be taken away from me due to having no signal, therefore not being able to receive text messages. Now asking someone who’s never even spoken to you and may not even know what you look like to go ahead and text you asking you a question, but have you ever tried asking someone who’s never done the aforementioned to WhatsApp you? It’s a whole different ball game as they’re required to SAVE your number, not just leave it as a random in their messages app.
Receiving guestlist the day after and realising you’ve missed out on an extra tenner/fifteen quid as a teenager is the most annoying thing. You begin to think of what that could have gone towards: red bull, jager… ummm… vodka. Yeah, that’s about it; essentials.
How did I combat this need to have signal, but lack of drive to constantly pick myself up to carry my body over to my phone to check my phone every 5 seconds for texts from the girlfriend or of guest list? I simply did nothing, however by doing nothing about it, I stumbled upon an advertised tweet. Mighty Text. The publicly paid for tweet advertised it as an application that allows you to text from your laptop or tablet. Perfect! And after running a little simple set up programme, this was eventually what I went ahead and did. It allowed me to place my phone on the windowsill, but text people from my Mac via the chrome extension. For a little bit, I even received notifications on the side, however that seemed to disappear after a day. For the few days I needed this form of texting to contact my girlfriend who’d recently moved house and therefore had no WiFi set up yet and to receive guest list texts, I found this application very useful.
In fact, I still need my phone on my windowsill to send messages and therefore I’ve decided to put it up there once every night to check and respond to any incoming messages or to send out the promotional text if needed.
If you struggle for mobile phone reception, I highly suggest you simply try out Mighty Text.
UPDATE: Since writing this, PushBullet and EvolveSMS have banded together to create a very similar creation to Mighty Text. The idea is that you can currently download the beta for both applications and whenever you receive a text on your phone using the EvolveSMS Texts application, it will show up on your laptop via PushBullet and it will allow you to send a quick reply. However there is no interface element other than the quick-reply. I would still choose Mighty Text as this does not require you to download two additional applications and also allows you to be able to read previous messages and other messages from other recipients etc.
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