OMG! Gmail Adds SMS Chat - Updated
UPDATE: Google has rolled back the SMS feature in Gmail due to a glitch. It will be available again in about 2 weeks. See the official word from Google at the bottom of the post.
Users of Google’s Gmail service can now send text message chats to mobile phones using the webapp’s built-in Chat feature.
Google is adding the experimental functionality through Gmail Labs. To turn it on, go to the Labs tab within Gmail’s settings. Or, just click on the little green Erlenmeyer flask icon next to your e-mail address at the top of the page in Gmail. If you don’t see the option right away, check back later — Gmail product manager Keith Coleman, who demonstrated the new feature for Webmonkey, says it will be made available in Labs to all Gmail users Thursday evening.
Once the option is turned on, start typing a phone number into Chat’s search box and you’ll see the option to send an SMS.
If you already have your friend’s phone number stored in your Google account’s contacts, try searching for them by name. When your friend’s name appears in the drop-down list of contacts, you’ll see an option to send them an SMS. You can also hover over or click on anyone in your Chat buddy list to send them an SMS.
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.
[UPDATED:�� Google has rolled back the feature after finding a “glitch.” According to Google:
“When you’d try to turn it on, it wouldn’t fully enable. We thought about keeping it out there — bugs and all — but the experience wasn’t that great. So, in the spirit of Labs, we’ve pulled SMS chat back to fix it, and we’ll get it back out to you as soon as it’s ready — probably within 2 weeks, so stay tuned.”
We’ll be sure to update you on Webmonkey when the feature reappears.]
