If you logged in to your individual Gmail or Google apps account since yesterday, you would see a message as shown in the below image capture. And in case you haven't, there is some good news for you from Google.
The search giant has started providing free SMS feature from the Gmail chat. All you need to do is check if your country and the network provider that you use are listed and supported. Just visit this page for the details on the countries and providers supported. The free service is now made available in India and other 51 countries in parts of Asia, Africa and North America. The feature is only available on the web version of Gmail, so users who mostly use the GTalk app on computers or on their smart-phones will be disappointed for a start. However, it was good to see that the Google apps users will be able to use the feature.
So how does it work? For using the feature, just start typing the contact number of the person you need to send the SMS to in the chat search box that sits just above the chat contact list of yours in the web version of your Gmail account. Once you are done typing the full number, you will see a 'Send SMS' option in the drop. Click on this option to open a small pop up where you will be required to put save this contact's information like 'Contact name', 'Country' , 'Contact Number' and type of number (Work, Mobile or Home). Fill these information and click save. That's all for a initial part. All that is left to do is to now type the SMS and hit send. On the chat like window where you will type your SMS, you can see how many SMS credits you have currently.
To start with, you will have 50 SMS credits that will decrease by 1 each time you send a message to your contact. The replies that you receive on each SMS sent by you will be shown in your chat window and also stored in the chat history. For each such reply you will gain 5 SMS credits (till a maximum of 50 credits). To make sure that you are not locked out of the system, in case your credit goes down to zero it will be raised back to 1 after 24hrs. For buying additional messages, Google says that "if you'd like a higher message credit, 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 SMS credit is increased by five. Effectively, you're buying more messages by paying your phone company for these outgoing messages."
Beware as the word is that sending too many SMSes from web to a mobile may ban the web user from the feature in case the mobile doesn't replies to the SMSes sent. However the "too many" wasn't related to a number. Good way to stop spammers, what's say??
The search giant has started providing free SMS feature from the Gmail chat. All you need to do is check if your country and the network provider that you use are listed and supported. Just visit this page for the details on the countries and providers supported. The free service is now made available in India and other 51 countries in parts of Asia, Africa and North America. The feature is only available on the web version of Gmail, so users who mostly use the GTalk app on computers or on their smart-phones will be disappointed for a start. However, it was good to see that the Google apps users will be able to use the feature.
So how does it work? For using the feature, just start typing the contact number of the person you need to send the SMS to in the chat search box that sits just above the chat contact list of yours in the web version of your Gmail account. Once you are done typing the full number, you will see a 'Send SMS' option in the drop. Click on this option to open a small pop up where you will be required to put save this contact's information like 'Contact name', 'Country' , 'Contact Number' and type of number (Work, Mobile or Home). Fill these information and click save. That's all for a initial part. All that is left to do is to now type the SMS and hit send. On the chat like window where you will type your SMS, you can see how many SMS credits you have currently.
To start with, you will have 50 SMS credits that will decrease by 1 each time you send a message to your contact. The replies that you receive on each SMS sent by you will be shown in your chat window and also stored in the chat history. For each such reply you will gain 5 SMS credits (till a maximum of 50 credits). To make sure that you are not locked out of the system, in case your credit goes down to zero it will be raised back to 1 after 24hrs. For buying additional messages, Google says that "if you'd like a higher message credit, 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 SMS credit is increased by five. Effectively, you're buying more messages by paying your phone company for these outgoing messages."
Beware as the word is that sending too many SMSes from web to a mobile may ban the web user from the feature in case the mobile doesn't replies to the SMSes sent. However the "too many" wasn't related to a number. Good way to stop spammers, what's say??
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