ResenderForward SMS to Outlook, Hotmail or Live mail from an Android phone
Install Resender on the phone that holds the SIM, sign in with Microsoft once, and every new SMS arrives in your Outlook inbox seconds after the phone receives it. The email is sent from your own address — outlook.com, hotmail.com, live.com or msn.com — with no sign-up and no server of ours.
Three steps
- Install Resender from Google Play on the Android phone with the SIM card. It can be your everyday phone or a spare one in a drawer, as long as it stays on and online.
- Open Sending method and tap Microsoft. Microsoft's own sign-in screen opens; choose the account to send from. The permission Resender asks for is called Send mail as you — that is the only thing it can do with the account. Your Outlook address becomes the first recipient at the same time.
- That's it. A new install starts with Forward everything switched on, so from now on every incoming SMS is emailed to you. Send yourself a test SMS and watch it arrive.
Why Outlook needs the sign-in
Microsoft switched Outlook.com off passwords for mail apps: a program can no longer send through it with your password or an app password. Resender therefore signs in the way Outlook itself does, through Microsoft's screen, and keeps the token it gets encrypted on the phone. Signing out in Resender deletes it.
What it looks like in Outlook
Each SMS is one email from your own address to the recipients you chose. The subject starts with [SMS] and the sender in brackets — the number, or the name a company sends under — followed by the text of the message. Outlook's rules work on that subject: file forwarded SMS into a folder, flag the ones from a sender that matters, or let the rest skip the inbox.
Only some senders, or only one SIM
Add a rule for a sender or for a word in the message text: the first matching rule decides where the SMS goes, and the last row, Forward the rest, takes whatever no rule took. A rule set to Do not forward keeps that sender out of your inbox. On a dual-SIM phone, each rule listens on the SIMs you choose.
If the emails stop coming
It is almost always the phone's battery manager stopping Resender in the background. Open the app: the main screen shows a red line when something is wrong, with a button that opens the right setting. The battery guides for each phone brand have the exact path.
Questions
Can I use an app password instead of the Microsoft sign-in?
No. Outlook.com no longer accepts passwords from mail apps at all, so the Microsoft sign-in is the only way — and the simpler one: one tap, no settings to copy.
What does Resender get access to?
One permission, which Microsoft's screen calls Send mail as you. Resender can send email from your address and nothing else: it cannot read, list or delete your mail.
Does this work with a work or school Microsoft 365 account?
Usually. The administrator of the organisation can block third-party apps from signing in; if the sign-in is refused, ask them to allow Resender, or sign in with a personal Outlook address and add the work address as a recipient.
The sign-in says my Microsoft account has no Outlook mailbox.
A Microsoft account created for Xbox, Skype or Windows does not always have a mailbox behind it. Open outlook.com once with that account to create one, or sign in with an address that already receives mail.
Where do the forwarded emails show up?
In your Outlook inbox like any mail you send yourself, and a copy in Sent. Rules in Outlook can file them: a rule on the subject, which starts with [SMS], moves them into a folder or marks them.