How to forward a text message: 7 methods to try

When you’re working with a team, forwarding text messages helps ensure everyone is on the same page. The cost of being unable to forward your text messages with your team is high. For example, if you can’t forward your texts with your team:

• You can’t handle texts when a teammate is sick or on vacation
• You can’t troubleshoot customer issues with your team easily
• You can’t share context on a customer relationship with team members

Dealing with limited information can hurt your team’s ability to build deep relationships with your customers. In this article, we’ll share seven text forwarding methods to ensure you don’t lose track of your customer conversations. We’ll highlight text forwarding methods for traditional SIM-based phones and VoIP phones.

7 text forwarding methods

When it comes to text message forwarding, you have a few options to choose from. Some are easy as 1-2-3, while others are tedious to put in place. Read through our list to find the best text message forwarding option for you.

How to forward a text

Here’s a quick overview of the methods we list below. Jump to whichever method you want to check out.

For traditional cell phones:

1. iPhone
2. Android
3. Copy-paste

For virtual phones (VoIP):

1. Forward text messages to email
2. Forward text messages to Slack
3. Automatically forward messages to HubSpot or Salesforce
4. Automatically forward text messages to other apps

1. Forward text messages using an iPhone

First, there’s the conventional way to forward text messages on an iPhone or iPad. It’s fairly simple if you know what you’re doing, but rather unintuitive if it’s your first time testing the feature on an iOS device. 

Here’s how to forward text messages on an iPhone, step-by-step:

1. In the Messages app, select and hold the text messages you wish to forward.
2. Select the More… option from the pop-up menu.
3. You’ll see the selected message with a blue checkmark icon next to it. Here you have the option to select additional messages to forward.
4. Select the arrow icon in the lower right-hand corner of your screen.
5. Enter the name of the contact for the forwarded message and select the green Send arrow to forward your message
6. To exit the text message forwarding selection screen, select the Cancel option in the top-right corner of the screen.

There are two drawbacks to keep in mind with text forwarding on iPhones:

1. Forwarded texts come from your number, not the original sender, which means recipients will lose the context of your forwarded messages. 
2. You can’t automatically forward texts on an iPhone, which adds friction and wastes time when you need to forward texts to your team.

2. Forward a text on Android

Forwarding texts on an Android phone is similar to the iPhone text forwarding process. If you’re not an iPhone user, follow the steps below to forward SMS messages from your Android device:

1. Select and hold the message you’d like to forward.
2. Choose the three vertical dot icon that appears.
3. Select Forward.
4. Select a contact to send the message to. Then, select the send button to forward your message.

Related: How to forward a text in Google Voice

3. Copy-paste messages

The classic method of forwarding a text message is to simply copy and paste the message.

Once again, this method provides the recipient with no information about the source of the original message. You’ll have to provide the message context for clarity. Plus, copy-pasting messages is a drag.

Nothing’s more inconvenient than copy-pasting an entire text message chain, especially when there are easier text forwarding techniques out there.

To copy and paste a message with an iPhone:

1. In the Messages app (also known as iMessage), select and hold the message bubble you wish to copy. 
2. Select Copy in the drop-down menu under your selected message.
3. Select the pencil icon in the top right corner of your Messages inbox. 
4. Choose the contact to whom you want to send your message from your contact list. 
5. Select and hold the draft Text Message box. You’ll get the option to choose Paste in the text box.
6. Paste your copied message and select the Send arrow button.

To copy and paste a message with an Android phone:

1. Select and hold the message you want to copy. 
2. Choose Copy to clipboard in the menu at the top center of your screen. You’ll get a pop-up bubble that says your message has been copied to your clipboard. 
3. Select Message at the bottom right of your inbox. 
4. Choose the contact you want to send your copied message to.
5. Select your copied message above your keyboard.
6. Send the copied message to your chosen contact.

4. Forward a text message to email

Certain virtual phone services offer the ability to forward a text to an email account. Forwarding texts to email is a reliable way of gaining access to multiple phone numbers while on the go. If you need to leave one or more of your devices at home, for instance, you can still count on receiving text updates via email.

OpenPhone is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider with a standout text-to-email forwarding system. After signing up for an OpenPhone business phone account, you’ll be able to keep your personal number private (and even give your teammates access to your number if you want — just like a shared email inbox) and then forward texts to any email address you’d like. 

Here’s how you can forward text messages to your email using OpenPhone:

1. Go to Settings > Phone numbers in your OpenPhone workspace.
2. Select the number from which you want to forward your messages.
3. Scroll down to Integrations > Connect to your email.
4. Select which notifications you’d like to send to your email. These include:
   1. Messages: Send incoming messages to your email.
   2. Missed calls: Get notified every time you miss a call.
   3. Voicemails: Send voicemail transcriptions every time you receive a voicemail.

Pro tip: Want to notify multiple people on your team, including teammates who aren’t using OpenPhone? You can edit the email on file and enter multiple addresses separated by commas.

5. Forward text messages to Slack

Text and email aren’t the only business communication tools. For organizations that use Slack as a centralized internal communication tool, forwarding text messages to Slack is useful. It gives you the ability to run customer feedback by your whole team and streamline your overall communications.

Forwarding your text messages to Slack is a feature you can only find in virtual phones. With OpenPhone, you can complete the whole setup process in a few easy steps, just like forwarding a text to email:

1. Sign in to your OpenPhone account.
2. Go to Settings > Phone numbers in your OpenPhone workspace.
3. Select the number from which you want to forward your messages.
4. Scroll down to Integrations > Connect to your Slack.
5. Choose the Slack channel you’d like to post to, then press Allow to grant OpenPhone access to your Slack workspace.
6. Select which events — incoming new messages, missed calls, or voicemails — you want automatically forwarded to Slack.

Now all those events will appear in your selected Slack channel. Your entire Slack team will be up to speed on your latest internal developments and customer communications.

6. How to automatically forward messages to HubSpot or Salesforce

With traditional cell phones, logging texts in a CRM requires manual effort and adds administrative work for teams. With VoIP phones, you can integrate your phone with your CRM to automatically forward and log customer texts in your CRM when they happen. 

To connect your VoIP phone with your CRM, go to your VoIP phone’s Integrations page in your Settings, select your CRM from the list of integrations, and connect your CRM account with your VoIP workspace.

For example, to connect your OpenPhone account with your HubSpot account:

1. Go to Settings > Integrations > HubSpot in your OpenPhone workspace.
2. Choose the HubSpot account you want to connect to your OpenPhone workspace.
3. In your OpenPhone workspace, you can toggle which activities to sync to your HubSpot account (calls, messages, or both). You can also choose which numbers you want to sync activities with your HubSpot account. 

Here’s what OpenPhone messages automatically logged in HubSpot look like:

You can also automatically log texts, call recordings, transcriptions, and summaries into other CRMs via the OpenPhone API.

7. Automatically forward text messages to other apps

Just as you can automatically forward your text messages to your CRM with your VoIP phone system, you can also forward them to any app of your choice. 

Maybe you want to keep track of support inquiries in a spreadsheet or a Notion database so you can see support trends over time. Or you want to forward customer texts to your help desk ticketing software and continue the conversation there. 

To cater to these use cases, many VoIP platforms offer a Zapier integration. Zapier is a workflow automation tool that connects to and moves information between the different applications you use. It works with 7,000+ applications, so there’s a good chance you can use it to make your favorite tools talk to each other.

OpenPhone offers a Zapier integration you can take advantage of. 

Here’s how to set it up:

1. Create a Zapier account.
2. Navigate to My Apps from the top menu bar.
3. Click on Add connection.
4. Search for OpenPhone.
5. Use your credentials to connect your OpenPhone account to Zapier (you’ll need to be an owner or admin user in OpenPhone to set up the Zapier integration).
6. Success! You can now start creating OpenPhone automations.

Want to quickly forward your SMS messages to a spreadsheet? Try the template below to set it up in minutes:

Why shared numbers are a better alternative to text forwarding

While you can automate text forwarding to your email, Slack, CRM, or another app in your stack, forwarding texts to another member of your team from your iPhone or Android device continues to be a manual process. 

The problem isn’t how you forward your texts — text forwarding is an outdated method of sharing texts with your team. 

The better alternative to text forwarding? Shared numbers. Shared numbers give your team access to the same virtual number on each of their devices.

With shared numbers, you can:

1. Take advantage of virtual numbers: You can call and text from a different phone number without giving out your cell number to business contacts. With shared numbers, teams can share responsibility for incoming phone calls and incoming texts. Everyone on the team is on the same page because they have access to every customer’s interaction history.
2. Collaborate with ease: Shared numbers allow you to tag team members in text threads to collaborate on the right responses to customers.
3. Enjoy increased flexibility: You can take over for a team member when they’re on vacation because you already have access to their shared number. Virtual numbers are also available on desktop, mobile, and browser apps, which means team members can send and receive texts on any device.

Automatically forward any text message with OpenPhone

As a premier VoIP service provider, OpenPhone prides itself on a wide array of features and stand-out customer service. In terms of text forwarding functionality, our goal is to make your life as easy as possible. Simply customize your OpenPhone settings to get text messages forwarded directly to Slack, your HubSpot or Salesforce account, or your email.

OpenPhone doesn’t just enable you to forward texts and share numbers with your team. You’ll also be able to:

• Offer professional call experiences to your customers with phone menus, business hours, call transfers, and more call-routing features
• Reply to customers at the right time with advanced messaging options like scheduled messages, automated texts, and auto-replies
• Never lose track of customer requests with call recording and AI call summaries and transcripts
• Track your team’s performance with call analytics and the ability to export your call and text data

To learn more about how to forward a text via OpenPhone, try our VoIP service for yourself. Sign up for your free trial today to explore everything OpenPhone has to offer.

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