Create free “Group SMS” service using Google SMS Channels
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Did you ever wish for an SMS service similar to Yahoo Groups or Google Groups???
A service that you could help you send your one SMS to all your friends and if any one of them reply to it… the reply goes back as an SMS to mobile phone of all you friends in the group.
Well here is a cool usage of Google SMS Channels to create a similar service…..but before going into details…
Catch this situation…
One lazy Sunday afternoon in Pune, sitting at home you feel like planning to watch a late night movie show….You type an SMS and send it to 6 of your friends to check who is interested to join you. Minutes later you start getting all types of queries.. one wants to watch “Drona” the other friend is ok with any movie but only in “Inox” … the third one can watch any movie but only in “Rahul cinema”…. while you start trying to collaborate using only SMS (as its only 10 paise per SMS) you actually end up doing 2-3 round robin of calling everyone to bring all to a conclusion…… Total time taken : 30 minutes
Now the same situation using “Group SMS”…
One lazy Sunday afternoon in Pune, sitting at home you feel like planning to watch a late night movie show….You type an SMS and post it to your “Google SMS channel”. All your friends receive this message (as an SMS on their mobile) as they have subscribed to your channel… now everyone post back to the channel (reply the SMS) what their preference is (You have set up your Google SMS channel in such a way that it allow its subscribers to post messages).
Everyone’ s SMS is further relayed to all other friend’s mobile handsets.. and after 2-3 iterations (posting back SMS on the group) you come to a unanimous plan. Total time taken : 5 minutes
Before winding up here are few simple steps you need to take to create your own cool SMS group!!!!!
Step 1
- Start your own SMS channel
- Click on “Try now>>” under “Create your own channel” on http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/browse
- Give name to your channel say “CoolGroup”
- Do not select any Data Source
- Set ‘Allow publishing by’ to ‘Any subscriber’
- Set ‘Who can subscribe’ to ‘By invitation only’
Step 2
- Invite your friends using “Invite others”
Step 3
- All your friends will receive an invitation SMS from Google on your behalf
- They need to send an SMS ‘ON CoolGroup’ to 9870807070
- and later ‘accept’ to 9870807070 to accept the terms and conditions
Step 4
- To post a message to the channel (sending SMS to all your friends) any of the members can send an SMS <channel_name> <message> to 9870807070
- In this case it will be sending an SMS ‘CoolGroup Hi all wanna go 4 any movie 2nite?’ to 9870807070
- This message will reach everyone’s mobile to which they can further reply back using the same method
Google SMS channels are poised to bring a complete revolution in the way we exchange information today! People are already exploring ways to innovate cool applications using Google SMS channels….
So keep exploring the countless possibilities and do keep me posted…
D-So-D
Deepesh Sodhi
Related: Google SMS Channels with TinyUrl Links
[Editor Note: This is first post by Deepesh Sodhi on this blog. Deepesh works on innovative product based business opportunities in IT, Telecom and Personal finance management space for the Indian market.
If you like to write for Devils Workshop, please check this. Details about our revenue sharing programs are here.]
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hehe, nice.
don’t get me wrong. This was asked by one of my friend on seeing another’s email ID .”Why do we tend to show our Online presence as cool?” 
‘CoolGroup’ 
One comment in lighter vein
Google sms channels do not provide local sms prices… But I have a good list of group sms services which provide at local sms prices… Check out….
http://www.techpavan.com/2008/09/08/sms-group-chat-services-india/
@Gaurav - @Gaurav
hehe… guess second most popular pick-up word after ‘cool’ would be ‘hot’…
@Pavan Kumar -
Sending SMS to 9870807070 should technically either be local or national charge only and not any Premium charge….
Checked the link.. the list is really good and neatly captured…
Thanks for sharing!
@Deepesh Sodhi -
Yup.. This is another advantage that Google SMS channels are using 10 digit mobile numbers rather that any premium service and short codes
@Deepesh Sodhi - @Deepak -
Do you have cheap or free sms for that number. I am using spice, Karnataka network and it costs me Rs. 0.50. Which is neither my local price [Rs.0.01] nor my National sms price [Rs.2.00]. I used TP2location service to reverse lookup phone number and found it to be Mumbai BPL mobile number… But still it does not cost me national sms cost. If you don’t know reverse lookup phone numbers refer my blog.
@Pavan Kumar -
Call up customer care and give a complain about it..
Say them that instead of deducting Rs 2….
and after that you’ll be charged Rs 2
@Deepesh Sodhi -
I did not get you…
@Deepak Jain -
Who want that to occur… Anyway, I wont send any sms to them from now onwards… The first was a test sms… We have web feature na…
@ All
I checked both MyToday and Vakow with reverse lookup technique. Amazed to know they are Airtel, Karnataka numbers.
@Pavan Kumar -
if google no is BPL mumbai then Spice must have charged you Rs 2 as per your plan!!!
@Deepesh Sodhi
Yeah, I don’t know why they charged me unusually… And also, once I messaged to MyToday’s another number 9972040000 [it is not public, I just know it], it ate up my Rs.3 which is international sms cost…
@Pavan Kumar -
I guess we need more data on premium number format.
One open question is, “Can 10-digit normal looking mobile numbers can be premium number as well?”
@microlix -
Thank you