Google has just added India to the growing list of countries that can use Google Chat to send free text messages to mobile phones. Users in India can now send SMS messages from Gmail’s chat interface to all available mobile carriers, and also receive messages from mobile devices straight to their Gmail. The service is not available in the standalone Google Talk app.
The service is free to use, but does come with a limit of 50 messages. This limit is not set in stone, though: for every SMS you receive through Gmail, five are added to your credit, so if you use the service to chat with friends, you will never run out of messages. If you do happen to run out, you’ll get one message after 24 hours, which you can use to stock up again. You can even send an SMS to yourself and reply to get more credit.
In order to send an SMS to a contact, type the contact’s name in the search box and select “Send SMS” from the menu that opens on the right. You will then be prompted to enter the phone number and save it. After that, a chat window will open, where you’ll be able to chat as you normally do, only this time it will be through SMS and not regular Google Chat.
Users in India who wish to stop receiving SMS messages on Gmail should text the number +918082801060 with the word “STOP”. To start receiving SMSes again, text the same number with the word “START”. This is a great little perk for users in India, who’ve now joined more than 50 countries worldwide who enjoy Google’s free SMS service.
Do you plan on using this new service?
Source: IBNLive
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Very useful feature added for us in India. Am gonna use it to the hilt to save some pennies on my SMSes!!! :D
good one….!!
That’s good. Since Google SMS Channels seems like dead, this is new service and will never become lazy at least.
SMS channels are still working well. I have a channel myself and I receive many messages from many channels everyday.
There ate already lots of sms services. No need of it.
It integrates well with gmail. Thats an advantage.
That’s true, but if you’re in Gmail anyway, it’s convenient that you can now send and receive SMS messages right there.
Not all carriers are supported.The major carrier Airtel doesn’t supports it.
Sorry about that. According to Google, the service supports all carriers. I’m not very familiar with carriers in India so I had to go with that, guess they missed one?
Nice!
Hope to see it in other countries. Seems handy to have SMS together with emails
Google. <3
Its pretty handy.. bit i don’t see myself using it much.
but*
Great :)
That was a long awaited one…
Yo Google…! Keep it coming.
Finally something good for Indian users. Thanks
Airtel , BSNL and MTNL are still missing from the list
Whoelse is it supporting then? They are the major players in the Indian market.
Well, seems like Google weren’t very accurate when they stated “all carriers” in their support list. Maybe they’re planning to expand..
Is three supported?
I didn’t understand what Google will gain from this. Can anyone please explain me what is the commerce behind this.
Nothing. You will stick to gmail. ANd google gains from the ads displayed in gmail.
It is a good service but messages can only to sent via gmail interface. It would be a bit more handy if sms service is integrated in gtalk.
Nice!
i,love eglish
i like this site is very impressing
aghhh what about malaysia?
NOw spamming will be started in india
I would love to see this one in Poland :)
Love sms via gmail.
I am trying to send sms to India from US, using gmail. Its not working . keeps giving me error message’ sms not sent ‘- receiver has not blocked this function so dont know why am getting this error
Might have been a temporary glitch, it should work no matter where you are in the world, I think. Did you get it to work?
Google is just the greatest company ever.
The free texting service allows me to stay in touch with my best friends back in Kuwait while I attend university in the US.
woo! IT’s good no need to login to “way to sms”.
Great start for India.
I never knew this… does it work in US?
The service is available in the US as well, yes.
simply superman……….
yes i have tried this its working nice one by gmail
such a great idea by google… i really like it..
Http://www.eworldsms.net/