Sending SMS from Gmail
Leo Lastimosa
- Enter your contact’s name in the ‘Search or invite friends’ box in Chat, and select Send SMS from the box of options that appears to the right of your contact’s name. Or, if you already have a Chat window open for this contact, just click Options, and select Send SMS.
- In the dialog box, enter a phone number in the ‘Send SMS messages to this number’ field. This feature works on Philippine phone numbers (Smart and Sun, for now).
- Click Save.
- A Chat window appears. Just type your message as you would normally. When you hit Enter, the message will be sent to the phone number you entered.
SMS charges: Google does not charge for using this service. However, mobile providers' standard charges will apply to any SMS messages sent from a mobile device to Google Chat. Please check your mobile provider's price plan for details.
The feature is very simple and straightforward: you can now choose to send an SMS to your friend instead of a regular text message if you already have a phone number added to this person’s contact information in your Google account or you can send a text message to a new phone number.
Google has also reserved thousands of phone numbers in 406 area so once you send a text message from Google Talk, one of such numbers is associated with your Google account and all the messages you send will show as sent from this number. The phone number works both ways so if the person you send a text message to replies to the phone number associated with your Google account, you will get the reply as a chat message as well.
- Replying to SMS messages
- When you receive an SMS message from a Gmail contact, add the incoming number to your phone's address book (this number is associated with the sender's Gmail account, so you can use it to send Chat messages to that person in the future). Then, you can reply to the message as you would any other text message, and your reply appears as a Chat message in your friend's Gmail account.
- Blocking SMS from Gmail
- If you receive an unwanted SMS message from Gmail Chat, you can block future messages from the sender. Just reply to the message with the word 'BLOCK'. If you change your mind about that sender, you can send a message with the phrase 'UNBLOCK' to the phone number from which the message was sent (the SMS messages sent from Gmail Chat have their own number associated with the sender's email account).
If you send the command 'STOP,' you'll block all SMS messages from Gmail accounts.
- Commands for SMS in Gmail
- Here are some commands that might come in handy for you down the road when using SMS with Chat:
- HELP: Text this command to any Gmail SMS number and you'll get a response reminding you of some of the basics of SMS and a refresher of some of the other useful commands
- STOP: This command will block all SMS messages from Gmail
- START: Re-enables you to receive SMS messages from Gmail if you're currently blocking them
- BLOCK: Send to the code number for a particular contact to block messages from that specific person
- UNBLOCK: Allows a blocked contact to send you SMS messages in the future
- Abuse prevention for SMS in Gmail
- If you send too many messages from web to mobile, without mobile responding, the web user will get blocked.
To prevent abuse, any Gmail user who sends an excessive number of SMS messages from Gmail, without getting any responses in return, will be blocked from sending further SMS messages.
- SMS in chat didn't work
- If you send an SMS message to a friend who doesn't receive it after a couple of hours, you may want to try again. Text messages can be a little flaky at times, and occasionally encounter some delays before reaching their recipient. If you see a message telling you that 'Something went wrong,' it could indicate that your message is taking a while, or that it might not go through at all. So, your best bet in this case is likely to try again.
- I got an SMS from Gmail, what is it?
Gmail users can send SMS messages to their contacts through Gmail Chat. To write back, reply to the message as you would any other text message, and your message appears as a Chat message in your friend's Gmail account.
How can I start sending SMS messages from Gmail?
Anyone with a Gmail account can send SMS messages to their contacts in certain countries through Gmail Chat. To start texting, turn on the Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat labs feature in the Labs tab of your Gmail account settings. Once the lab is enabled, you can send text messages to your friends' phones.
If you don't have a Gmail account, you can create an account at http://mail.google.com/mail/signup.
- Supported mobile operators
Below is a list of supported mobile operators for SMS Chat in Gmail
- Angola
Unitel - Bahrain
Zain - Ghana
Airtel
MTN
Tigo - Indonesia
Indosat
Telkomsel - Iraq
Zain - Israel
orange
Pelephone - Jordan
Zain - Kenya
Airtel
orange
Safaricom - Kuwait
Wataniya
Zain - Liberia
Cellcom - Malawi
Airtel
TNM - Mozambique
Vodacom - Nigeria
Glo
Starcomms - Palestinian Territories
Jawwal
Wataniya Mobile -
Philippines
SMART
Sun Cellular - Saudi Arabia
STC - Senegal
orange
Tigo - Tanzania
Vodacom - Tunisia
Tunisiana - Uganda
Orange
MTN
Uganda Telecom - United States
All operators - Zambia
Airtel
MTN
If you are a mobile operator, and wish to integrate with the SMS feature of Gmail, please drop us a note to: mobile-operators-gm...@google.com
- Angola
- SMS Quotas in Gmail
- A quota is an allocation of SMS (text messages) that you're able to send to a mobile phone:
- Initially, you're granted a quota of fifty messages.
- Every time you send a message, your quota decreases by one.
- Every time you receive an SMS message in Chat (for example when a phone user replies to one of your messages) your quota increases by five, up to a maximum of 50.
"Buying" additional messages
Keep in mind that if you'd like a higher message quota, you can always send an SMS to your own phone, and then reply to that message multiple times. Every time you send a reply message, your quota is increased by five. Effectively, you're buying more messages by paying your phone company for these outgoing messages.
