How to read phone texts on a pc

[fourtwentyfour]

I have an Android Galaxy Note 4 phone and would like to download text messages to my pc so I can read them there, and delete on the phone. Is this possible?

I have tried a couple of backup programs, Smart Switch and Android Repair, (Tenorshare). The first doesn't seem to allow me to read files on the pc, and the second wanted to install things on my phone and although I could read texts on the pc, the records were not complete.

Thanks

[swill453]

If you use Google Messages, you can open a web version on a browser on your PC and see your texts.

Whether this meets your other requirements I don't know.

Scott.

[scrumpyjack]

They link together fine with the Windows Your Phone app. It all seemed to get set up automatically when I upgraded to Windows 11 so I can see my Samsung phone - pictures, messages etc on my Windows desktop screen.

[tjh290633]

I agree about the Your Phone app. That needs the Android app Your Phone Companion (or an iPhone equivalent) on your phone to make it work. You can get notifications, texts, emails and photos from your phone to your PC that way.

TJH

[fourtwentyfour]

Thank you.

Just to be a little clearer....

The text messages are SMS, I think. They are historical, for the last 5 years or so, and are important. I need to keep them but want to free the phone of them. (As it happens, the phone is nearing the end of its life, today has been taken up with many reboots, reloads etc. so I don't think the messages will remain intact for too much longer.)

I was not looking specifically for a real-time pc/phone connection, although if something does that it might be useful.

However, it would be preferable to keep stuff on my pc and not give google or microsoft access.

Thanks.

[swill453]

There's an app called SMS Backup & Restore which can save all texts into an XML file.

This can be restored onto a different phone. Or you may be able to use other means to access what you want.

Scott.

[mc2fool]

If you use Google Messages, you can open a web version on a browser on your PC and see your texts.

Whether this meets your other requirements I don't know.

Ha, I wasn't aware of this but on a quick search I found it trivially easy to set up. Just go to https://messages.google.com/web/authentication

Mind you, somewhat disappointingly, other than being able to do it on your PC, it doesn't offer anything more than you can do on your phone, indeed, it's just an interface to your phone, which needs to be online, and doesn't help with the OP's downloading requirement....

[BobbyD]

If you are looking to archive I'd make sure that you don't need to rely on an app or programme still being available or able to run on your hardware, at the point in the future when you discover you need to be able to read them. A nicely formatted, searchable, text file in a common format would be ideal.

[pochisoldi]

If you are looking to archive I'd make sure that you don't need to rely on an app or programme still being available or able to run on your hardware, at the point in the future when you discover you need to be able to read them. A nicely formatted, searchable, text file in a common format would be ideal.

IMHO an XML file, plus a text file would be the two preferred formats. Both are text based, XML is better for importing and processing automatically, and is pretty much futureproof.
The text file might be readable, but will be formatted in a manner that assumes the data will be used in a certain manner, or is being held for a certain reason, whereas XML is just a data container.