Send SMS from Gmail

How to Send SMS from Gmail

First Log in to your Gmail Account, click on Settings, and go to the Labs tab. Scroll down
until you see “Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat” and select Enable and Save
Changes.

To send an SMS, You can simply type a US-phone number or into the search box
in the chat window on the left, then select “Send SMS.” You can also select the
contact you want to SMS first and then add their phone number.

Once you give us a name for that phone number, you’ll be able to start
chatting.

According to the Gmail blog
post, the site is currently testing
out the service with US phones only for now (messages can be sent from abroad,
they just need to be directed at a US phone).

Filed under: Google

Gmail Themes!

Gmail fans have been building unofficial extensions to spice up their inboxes
for a while, but up til now themes haven’t been an integral part of Gmail. We
wanted to go beyond simple color customization, so out of the 30 odd themes
we’re launching today, there’s a shiny theme with chrome styling, another one
that turns your inbox into a retro notepad, nature themes that change scenery
over time, weather driven themes that can rain on your mailbox, and fun
characters to keep you in good company. There’s even an old school ascii theme
(Terminal) which was the result of a bet between two engineers — it’s not
exactly practical, but it’s great for testing out your geek cred. We’ve also
done a minor facelift to Gmail’s default look to make it crisper and cleaner —
you might notice a few colors and pixels shifted around here and
there.

To customize your inbox, go to the Themes tab under
Settings. We’ll be rolling out themes to everyone over the next couple of
days, so if you don’t see them yet, check back soon. As for which theme to
choose, don’t ask us. We’re neutral

Filed under: Google

Gmail Labs Adds Text Messaging Feature

Gmail Labs Adds Text Messaging Feature. KTHXBAI. (Update)

We
don’t see it in our Gmail settings (yet), but Webmonkey reports that Gmail Labs has added a
very useful opt-in feature for sending text / SMS messages to mobile phones
using the built-in Chat functionality.

Update: the Labs team found
a glitch and is pushing the release
back a bit (’probably within two weeks’).

Update 2: make sure you read the open
letter the Webmail team at AOL
writes to Google. It’s supposed to be funny, I guess, but it’s really not and
quite unprofessional to boot.

Turning the option on in your Gmail account settings apparently enables you
to send an SMS as soon as you start typing a phone number into Chat’s search
box. When you enter new phone numbers, it will save the digits in your contact
entries as well. This means that when contacts go offline, the chat window will
give you the option to switch to SMS.

Our invitation for a live demo was lost in the mail, but Webmonkey has been
given a demonstration of the experimental feature by Gmail product manager Keith
Coleman and adds:

The first time you send a text message, it will appear on the person’s phone
as coming from a number in the 406 area code. Google has made several thousands
of these numbers available for Gmail users, and once a number is associated with
your account, all of the text messages you send through Gmail will come from
that number.

The 406 number works both ways, so your friend can reply to you via text
message. Also, your friend can save that number in their phone as belonging to
you, and they can even use it to initiate new chats with you.

We haven’t been able to try this out ourselves yet, but Google does list the
text messaging feature on its ‘What’s new in Gmail
Labs‘ page (only for US phones,
for now).

This is probably one of the first results we’re seeing from Google’s acquisition
of GrandCentral (dating back to June 2007
already).

No official word yet on the Gmail blog (the GrandCentral blog has been silent since last
April), but we suspect an announcement and general roll-out to follow soon.

Filed under: Google