Accessible SMS (Android Messages) for Communicator 5
Getting Started
- Requirements – to use Accessible SMS you need the application Messages (SMS) by Google, installed on your Android Smartphone or tablet with cellular connectivity.
- Using Accessible SMS for the first time – After selecting Accessible SMS from your Home Page, you will see the “scan QR code” prompt. On your smartphone or tablet, go to Messages. Follow the instructions on your device screen (“Text on your computer with Messages for web”) on how to to add a computer scanning a QR code.
- You are now ready to use Accessible SMS.
- Note – Accessible SMS uses Messages for Web, which requires your phone or tablet to be connected to the internet.
Home
- Start Chat – search for a contact to start a chat with.
- Menu – go to Accessible SMS Menu.
- Chat View – go to Chat View.
- Send Message – send a message (text, emoji, picture, file…) to the selected contact.
- Previous Contact and Next Contact – select the contact above or below the currently selected one. If no contact is selected – select the first contact.
- Browse Contacts – open your contacts table. You can review and select contacts from the table.
- Chat Up and Chat Down – scroll up or down several messages in the chat with the selected contact.
- Stop Reading – stop reading aloud.
- Read Contact – read the name of the selected contact aloud.
Chat View
- Download File – download file from the selected message to your computer.
- Open Link – Open a link from the selected message, in a new window.
- Message up and Message down – select the next/previous message in a chat. If no message is selected – select the first message.
- Scroll Chat Up and Scroll Chat Down – go up or down several messages in the selected chat.
- Delete message – delete the currently selected message.
- Stop Reading – stop reading aloud.
- Read Message – read the selected message aloud.a
SMS Menu
- Start Group Chat – select contacts for a group chat.
- Top Contact – go to the first contact.
- Mute Notifications – mute all notifications.
- Send to Archive – archive the selected chat.
- Delete Chat – delete the selected chat.
- Utilities – recover / reopen SMS, close windows you do not need, close pop-up messages, zoom in, zoom out…
- Options – change the computer volume, toggle text enlargement, turn on Dark Mode, turn auto-read on and off, SMS additional options.
- Exit (Communicator Home Page) – exit Accessible SMS.
Frequently Asked Questions - SMS
You need the app Messages by Google (details in the following link https://messages.google.com/). Note that this app does not work on an iPhone (or on a tablet with iOS).
Click the Browse Contacts button. It opens a table with your contacts on the browser area. If you have more than one page of contacts, the button More will appear on the table. You can move between the pages, by clicking this button (which is eye-gaze enabled). Once you are ready to select a specific contact, click the Select button and select a contact using eye-gaze. Then click Exit to go back to SMS home page, to send and review messages to/from this contact.
Use the Next Contact and Previous Contact buttons to navigate between your contacts. Once a contact is highlighted you can use the Chat Up and Chat Down buttons, to go over this contact messages and read them.
Use the Next Contact and Previous Contact buttons (or Browse Contacts) to navigate to the contact that you are interested in. Once the contact is highlighted, click Chat View, and use the Message buttons (up and down) and Scroll Chat buttons (up and down) to get to the message you want to select.
Click the Search Gif and type in the search phrase. Then use the arrows to select the gif you want to send. Once it is highlighted, click Select Gif to send it.
This button allows you to send a message to a group of contacts. After clicking it, you will be asked to add contacts to the group. Once you are done, you can click Start Chat and send the message to the group.
You need to click send, only when the file / picture that you want to send is selected. If you click Send when a directory is selected, nothing will be sent, and the dialogue box for selecting a file / picture will be closed.