SMS – The Google way

Google has rolled out its free SMS service in India in last week. Yah, it is completely free and easy to use service from Google. So what Google or Gmail is offering? You can send text message or SMS to any mobile no in India from your Gmail chat window. You should add mobile no to the contact with whom you are chatting. So if he goes offline line on chat still you can send him message on his cell phone. And if he replied to that SMS then you will receive that message in chat window. It cannot be simpler then this. Let’s talk about it more…

Who can use this service?

Service is available to all who has got Gmail account or Google app mail account. (This nothing but your company email hosted on Gmail).

How many SMSes are free?

Unlimited. You get 50 SMS credited to your account to start with. When you send one SMS balance goes down by 1. But if some one reply to your SMS then you get back 5 SMS balance back to your credit. Sending SMS from Gmail cost you nothing and person who is replying to that will charged as per his billing plan. No additional charges to reply Gmail SMS. So if some one has unlimited SMS (or now it 200 SMS a day) pack then he will not charge for reply.

What if I send all 50 SMSes and no one reply to it?

My gentle advice to you is stop sending SMSes if you don’t get any reply for 50.  Okay joke apart but if you send all 50 SMSes and no reply come to any of it then Gmail add 1 SMS balance to your account after 24 hours. Don’t waste this by sending it to same people whom you send 50 earlier. Send it to a no (preferably on your own no) from where you can reply for sure else you have to wait for another 24 hours to next chance. Once you reply to this message you will get back 5 SMSes to your balance.

What about my no security?

In today’s internet world, my frank opinion is that, it is very difficult to hide your personal details like mobile no and email id or any other such info. And mind you, it is not you but one of your friends or a contact who is going to expose you contact no in public domain. So you anyway don’t have control on it. What you can control is you can block all SMSes coming from Gmail by sending STOP request to your service provider. You can resume this by sending START request again. You can also selectively block any of your contact SMSes coming from Gmail.

GadgetDost verdict

If you chatting with your friend and your friend left chat abruptly, and you want send some important message in same flow then this is very useful tool by Gmail.