What happened to SMS?

**Gankaku** · 20th May 2004, 03:48 AM

I went to the thread for the SMS testing and it looks like the feature's been removed from there.

So I was wondering if we're going to get SMS or not? I sure could use it today to send my hubby a text message. I don't want everyone to hear Beep BEEP Beep as I text out a message to him at the office.

Just curious.

specialK · 21st May 2004, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gankaku
I I sure could use it today to send my hubby a text message. I don't want everyone to hear Beep BEEP Beep as I text out a message to him at the office.

Isn't SMS for email notification not email-to-SMS?? Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick?

**Gankaku** · 21st May 2004, 11:50 AM

You can type a message in online SMS services and send a message to a phone that way, rather than phone to phone. I was under the impression that's what FM was developing. (I could be wrong?) Anyway I was wondering the status.

21st May 2004, 04:22 PM

Do you mean:

Quote:

Coming Enhancements
A general notification system, so you can send a pager message, SMS message, instant message, or short email

Or http://www.fastmail.fm/cgi-bin/smstest.pl (thread)?

Terry · 22nd May 2004, 08:06 PM

It got put in the hard basket........won't be until the end of the year at the earliest........J.H did advise this on one of the threads.

Fenman · 22nd May 2004, 08:34 PM

While you are waiting, I can throroughly recommend VGS who will send well-priced SMS alerts from any IMAP account. There's also web-to-SMS, e-mail to SMS and other goodies.

I also just started using a neat desktop-to-SMS 'client' from Genie Texter and it's working nicely too with an address book.

**Gankaku** · 23rd May 2004, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Terry
It got put in the hard basket........won't be until the end of the year at the earliest........J.H did advise this on one of the threads.

Oh, I didn't realize that. Thanks.

Jeremy Howard · 24th May 2004, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Terry
It got put in the hard basket........won't be until the end of the year at the earliest........J.H did advise this on one of the threads.

Actually someone started working on this again last week.

Most of the infrastructure is falling into place nicely.

**Gankaku** · 24th May 2004, 08:20 AM

Thanks Jeremy, this is nice to know it's still being worked on.

octothorpe · 31st May 2004, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gankaku
I went to the thread for the SMS testing and it looks like the feature's been removed from there.

So I was wondering if we're going to get SMS or not? I sure could use it today to send my hubby a text message. I don't want everyone to hear Beep BEEP Beep as I text out a message to him at the office.

Just curious.

What you need to do is log on to the website of his mobile carrier and find the link where you can send a message out through the website. I belive all the major carriers provide this service.

As for SMS notification of Fastmail messages:
Verizon and AT&T, and probably others, provide each user with an e-mail to SMS gateway address for free. Mine is something like 9876543210@vtext.com (except that "9876543210" is not my real cell number) and the ones for AT&T are formatted 9876543210@attwireless.com, I think. In other words, any e-mail sent to that address will show up as an SMS message on my handset, or at least the first 155 (or however many it is) characters. Check to see if your cell provider gives you such an address, and if they do, just set up a filter in Fastmail to send along messages to that address according to whatever criteria you wish. You'll get the "from:" line and the subject and usually the first line or two of the message before you hit the character limit. You might not want an SMS message for EVERY message you get, so it's probably wise to set up a filter that forwards messages on depending on which of your aliases they're addressed to, or maybe the sender. I've been doing this for some time now, and generally find that I get SMS notification of a new message within 30 seconds of its being received, and often quicker than that.

LrdVader · 31st May 2004, 03:37 PM

Those email-to-SMS gateways are scary! Can you imagine if your phone's email address ever started getting the volume of spam some people's regular email accounts get!?

octothorpe · 31st May 2004, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LrdVader
Those email-to-SMS gateways are scary! Can you imagine if your phone's email address ever started getting the volume of spam some people's regular email accounts get!?

That's a good point. Obviously it's a very bad idea to give out your email to SMS address. Verizon, at least, offers an option to block SMS messages sent from e-mail. That would obviously hamper the functionality I was talking about before, but would be a LOT better than getting handset spam!

Chances are the wireless providers will fight spam really hard though, because they're looking to SMS and other messaging services as their next growth area.

rob_au · 31st May 2004, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LrdVader
Those email-to-SMS gateways are scary! Can you imagine if your phone's email address ever started getting the volume of spam some people's regular email accounts get!?

In the ideal situation, SMS notification could be a filtering rule outcome such that individual rules could be created to only send a copy of a mail message via SMS when certain rule criteria are met. This however would be a task unto itself to implement.

rob_au · 31st May 2004, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by octothorpe
Chances are the wireless providers will fight spam really hard though, because they're looking to SMS and other messaging services as their next growth area.

This is an area which Bluebottle already has some products under development - One such product is a system called MessageChoice which is a SMS variant of our existing challenge-response technology.

bitequator · 1st June 2004, 02:23 PM

Quick question, do all major USA cellular carriers offer unlimited SMS receiving for free, or does any of them charge? I'm talking receiving, not sending (which does cost).

How about the European/Asian carriers?

Unfortunately the biggest carrier in an Asian country which a family member uses, doesn't offer an SMS email address (email-to-SMS gateway), believe it or not...

What we need though are MMS/EMS rich email/web gateways

Anyone know what the status of this is among US and other providers?

20th May 2004, 03:48 AM	#1
Gankaku Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,155	What happened to SMS? I went to the thread for the SMS testing and it looks like the feature's been removed from there. So I was wondering if we're going to get SMS or not? I sure could use it today to send my hubby a text message. I don't want everyone to hear Beep BEEP Beep as I text out a message to him at the office. Just curious.

21st May 2004, 11:50 AM	#3
Gankaku Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,155	You can type a message in online SMS services and send a message to a phone that way, rather than phone to phone. I was under the impression that's what FM was developing. (I could be wrong?) Anyway I was wondering the status.

22nd May 2004, 08:06 PM	#5
Terry Master of the @ Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: A.U Posts: 1,597	It got put in the hard basket........won't be until the end of the year at the earliest........J.H did advise this on one of the threads.

22nd May 2004, 08:34 PM	#6
Fenman Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: UK (East Anglia) Posts: 544	While you are waiting, I can throroughly recommend VGS who will send well-priced SMS alerts from any IMAP account. There's also web-to-SMS, e-mail to SMS and other goodies. I also just started using a neat desktop-to-SMS 'client' from Genie Texter and it's working nicely too with an address book.

24th May 2004, 08:20 AM	#9
Gankaku Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,155	Thanks Jeremy, this is nice to know it's still being worked on.

31st May 2004, 03:37 PM	#11
LrdVader The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 2,550	Those email-to-SMS gateways are scary! Can you imagine if your phone's email address ever started getting the volume of spam some people's regular email accounts get!?

1st June 2004, 02:23 PM	#15
bitequator The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: USA Posts: 2,978	Quick question, do all major USA cellular carriers offer unlimited SMS receiving for free, or does any of them charge? I'm talking receiving, not sending (which does cost). How about the European/Asian carriers? Unfortunately the biggest carrier in an Asian country which a family member uses, doesn't offer an SMS email address (email-to-SMS gateway), believe it or not... What we need though are MMS/EMS rich email/web gateways Anyone know what the status of this is among US and other providers?