OK, those of you who know me know that text messaging sometimes gets on my nerves.  As you can tell from past articles, such as the one I wrote on the topic of texting while driving, I have a view that texting CAN be useless and even dangerous.  Well, as it turns out, Google is beginning to force me to change my mind… to a point.

ALSO, if you know me, I do not have a data plan on my phone, neither do I have the need to, neither do I see the need to in the foreseeable future.  Google is actually helping me in this area.  As long as I have unlimited SMS, I can do many cool things without an expensive data plan.

You see, I just recently upgraded my phone to one of those “messaging” phones which has a quirty keypad making texting a whole lot easier.  Having the ability now to actually type, I’ve been exploring what I can actually do with SMS besides the obvious corny messages between friend and family.  Well, as it turns out, there are several ways that SMS can enhance the way you use Gmail and Google Calendars.  I’m sure these tricks have been kicked around for awhile, but here is what I get out of it.

SMS and Gmail

There are a few ways that SMS can work with Gmail.  I’ve figured them out by either messing around or by, you guessed it, Googling it!

1. I can be notified via SMS when I get email.  That, in and of itself is cool, you can do that with any email service, just forward email to (yournumber)@(your phone carrier, such as vtext for Verizon).com.  With Verizon you can set up a nickname, too to cut out using your own number.  With Gmail’s labels and filters, I can actually choose what kind of email to notify me about.  For instance, I set up a filter to send all emails from my wife to my vtext email address.  At this point, I am notified that I need to pick up milk, or whatever.



2. I can use Gmail to take a note for me so I will remember it later when checking my email.  I set up a filter to label all email with a phrase like “makeamemo” anywhere in the email with a label such as “MEMOS.”  So now I can just send an SMS to my Gmail address and have a nifty list of memos to remember. Notice that I made sure it filters only email from my address so no mistaken mail gets plopped there.  ALSO I made sure that the messages skip the inbox so that doesn’t get cluttered.

I am sure there is more I can do with Gmail and SMS.  I am still learning.  As I learn, I will share.

SMS and Google Calendars

Here are a couple of tricks I learned about Google Calendar and how SMS can enhance my use of it.

First you’ll want to set up your Google Calendar account to work with your cell phone.  Just click settings and follow the instructions in the mobile setup section.

1. I can have Google send me an SMS reminder of an appointment coming up.  I am SO bad at remembering appointments, especially if they are made a long time in advance.  Well, I could either mess with my phone’s calendar, which I’d rather not, OR I can have Google calendar remind me.  With the flexibility and ease of use that Google Calendar provides, it seems an obvious choice.



2. I can MAKE appointments on my Google Calendar via SMS!  I think that is the coolest thing EVER!  All I have to do is send a message to the number Google provides me (48368), make sure the date, time, and details are all in there, and bodda-bing!  Google will then send a confirmation SMS making sure the date, time and details are recorded correctly so there’s no worries there.  For more information, check out the post in Google’s help pages.

The idea here is that I don’t really need a data plan when I have SMS, and therefore I save money.  I’m sure there are more ways that you can use SMS with Google’s services.  Have you read my post about filtering and canned messages?  I’m still looking to learn more so if you know of any more hacks or tricks I can use SMS for, let me know.  AND, as usual, I will share with y’all what I learn!