mariva

awesome.. jsut works fine... the next step:

 

write the message/reply directly through alfred!!! this would be so cool!!!!

Not to seem ungrateful, but I agree. ;-)

I was trying to accomplish something similar, but I was hoping to use simpler inputs and methods:

http://www.alfredforum.com/topic/1687-workflow-to-message-a-specific-contact/

http://www.alfredforum.com/topic/1741-how-to-launch-an-app-messages-using-a-specific-contact-from-contacts/

I guess I'm a little flummoxed that such a seemingly simple task would require so much scripting. Alfred has email-a-specific-contact built in, so why not message-a-specific-contact as well?

Update: Jasper van der Meulen may have solved my problem:

Jasper van der Meulen may have solved my problem:

http://www.alfredforum.com/topic/1168-imessage-focus-with-part-of-namehandle/

Works pretty well, but I'm wondering if there's an easier way to accomplish this (without the major-ish scripts).

I asked this question in the Workflow Help & Questions forum (http://www.alfredforum.com/forum/13-workflow-help-questions/), but I believe I need even more basic assistance.

Currently, Alfred is able to email a specific contact, but I would like also to be able to message a specific contact via the Messages app. If I start typing the name of a contact, Alfred recognizes that contact -- and can even open it, but from there I can't get it to message the person. I've tried various workflows to try to address this. I know how to launch the Messages app, but I can't figure out how to get it to start a new message to a specific contact. I can't make heads or tails out of the "Contact Action" trigger, and I'm not even sure that a Contact Action trigger would help me with this workflow.

I realize that this seems very basic, so I feel quite silly. I would appreciate any help or ideas.

To send a message to their phone number (as an iMessage), you would go to Preferences->Features->Contacts and add a Custom Action. Select "Phone" as the field and set it to Pass to URL Scheme. Set the scheme to imessage://{query}

 

This works in most cases but sometimes the Phone Number is entered in a different format. The "Pass to URL Scheme" doesn't work so well if the phone number has parenthesis, hyphens, or spaces in it. To avoid that, you would create a workflow with a Contact Action. Then, instead of using Pass to URL Scheme, you would select your custom contact action (the workflow). Here is one already made: download

Thanks for the information, David. Two questions:

1. iMessage is now called Messages on Mac OS X. (Kind of like how Apple changed "iCal" to "Calendar".) So should I change "imessage://{query}" to "messages://{query}" or leave it as is?

2. What about with an email address? The Messages app can send messages from one computer to another via email addresses. Would I do the same thing in the Contacts section of Preferences / Features -- add "Email" instead of "Phone"?

How do I set up a workflow to choose a specific contact in Contacts and send that person a message via the Messages app? (Akin to how Alfred allows a user to email a specific contact.) I started a new workflow that launches the Messages app, and I tried to add a Contact Action, but that doesn't exactly work: Contact Action comes before, rather than after, Messages -- and I want Messages to start first and enable a specific contact to be used as the input.

I welcome advice and suggestions. Thanks!