How to print files using Android is
something our users enquire about a
lot. Thanks to the Google Cloud Print
service, we can now cut out the
laborious PC middle-man and print
directly from our smartphones over
Wi-Fi. So, here is the easiest way to
print messages from your Android
device…
The good thing about Google Cloud
Print is that it works with all printers,
and a ton of applications. Using your
Android smartphone or tablet, you can
securely send documents to your
printer, from anywhere, but the initial
setup can be tricky. To get the best
experience, you are going to want to
use a “Cloud Ready” printer, i.e. a
printer which can already connect to
the web (check out the full list of
supported printers if you’re not sure),
and you will need to be using Google
Chrome also. Don’t worry if you don’t
have a Wi-Fi enabled printer, you can
use your USB printer too, though you
will need to have it connected to your
powered up PC or laptop to do this.
Many smartphones that come with
Android 4.4 KitKat already include the
Google Cloud Print functionality. Go to
Settings > System and see if the
Printing option is available. If it is,
and the service is pre-installed, go to
the options and hit “Cloud Print” and
switch it on. Each device will have it’s
own particular interface, so some
menu locations or words may be
slightly different.
If you don’t have the Printing option in
your Settings, or you don’t have the
service pre-installed, just head to the
Google Play Store and download the
free Cloud Print app and add a new
printer from there..
Once you select “add printer” from the
options menu, you will be taken to
Google’s Cloud Print web page (or to
your Google account page if you aren’t
signed in)…
The Cloud Print page isn’t very user-
friendly, but the setup process is
rather simple. Follow the steps for
your specific printer, whether it is an
offline model or a “Cloud Ready”
model, and at the end Google will tell
you that you can now use that printer
whenever you are signed in with the
same Google account. So, if you only
use the one account on your phone,
this is whenever you like..
Now, navigate to the file you want to
print on your Android device and in the
options menu, normally where you
can rename, view details, delete the
item etc., you should also have the
option to print it.
For printing text messages
specifically, the easiest option is to
use an app like the conveniently
named SMS Backup & Restore. This
app simply backs up your SMS
messages to your phone, email, or
cloud service like DropBox or Google
Drive. Just backup the conversations
you want to your preferred destination
(I found backing them up to Gmail.com works quite well) and then navigate to
where the files are stored. For
example, backup your files to Gmail,
then go to your Gmail account and
select the “print” option in the options
menu to print them..
That’s all there is to it. Cloud Print is
an excellent but often overlooked
service, and currently supports the
following file types: pdf, jpg, jpeg,
docx, ods, xls, xlsx, ppt, odp, txt, doc
and xps. If you want a convenient way
to print any of these from your device,
I’d definitely recommend you check it
out, and it’s free. For those who have
already tried it, let me know in the
comments if this process worked for
you..
For Cloudprint App :
Cloudprint app