Create free “Group SMS” service using Google SMS Channels

Did you ever wish for an SMS service similar to Yahoo Groups or Google Groups???

A service that you could help you send your one SMS to all your friends and if any one of them reply to it… the reply goes back as an SMS to mobile phone of all you friends in the group.

Well here is a cool usage of Google SMS Channels to create a similar service…..but before going into details…

Catch this situation…

One lazy Sunday afternoon in Pune, sitting at home you feel like planning to watch a late night movie show….You type an SMS and send it to 6 of your friends to check who is interested to join you. Minutes later you start getting all types of queries.. one wants to watch “Drona” the other friend is ok with any movie but only in “Inox” … the third one can watch any movie but only in “Rahul cinema”…. while you start trying to collaborate using only SMS (as its only 10 paise per SMS) you actually end up doing 2-3 round robin of calling everyone to bring all to a conclusion…… Total time taken : 30 minutes

Now the same situation using “Group SMS”…

One lazy Sunday afternoon in Pune, sitting at home you feel like planning to watch a late night movie show….You type an SMS and post it to your “Google SMS channel”. All your friends receive this message (as an SMS on their mobile) as they have subscribed to your channel… now everyone post back to the channel (reply the SMS) what their preference is (You have set up your Google SMS channel in such a way that it allow its subscribers to post messages).

Everyone’ s SMS is further relayed to all other friend’s mobile handsets..  and after 2-3 iterations (posting back SMS on the group)  you come to a unanimous plan. Total time taken : 5 minutes

Before winding up here are few simple steps you need to take to create your own cool SMS group!!!!!

Step 1

  • Start your own SMS channel
  • Click on “Try now>>” under “Create your own channel” on http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/browse
  • Give name to your channel say “CoolGroup”
  • Do not select any Data Source
  • Set ‘Allow publishing by’ to ‘Any subscriber’
  • Set ‘Who can subscribe’ toBy invitation only’

Step 2

  • Invite your friends using “Invite others”

Step 3

  • All your friends will receive an invitation SMS from Google on your behalf
  • They need to send an SMS ‘ON CoolGroup’ to 9870807070
  • and later ‘accept’ to 9870807070 to accept the terms and conditions

Step 4

  • To post a message to the channel (sending SMS to all your friends) any of the members can send an SMS <channel_name> <message>  to 9870807070
  • In this case it will be sending an SMS ‘CoolGroup Hi all wanna go 4 any movie 2nite?’ to 9870807070
  • This message will reach everyone’s mobile to which they can further reply back using the same method

Google SMS channels are poised to bring a complete revolution in the way we exchange information today!  People are already exploring ways to innovate cool applications using Google SMS channels….

So keep exploring the countless possibilities and do keep me posted…

D-So-D

Deepesh Sodhi

Related: Google SMS Channels with TinyUrl Links


[Editor Note: This is first post by Deepesh Sodhi on this blog. Deepesh works on innovative product based business opportunities in IT, Telecom and Personal finance management space for the Indian market.

If you like to write for Devils Workshop, please check this. Details about our revenue sharing programs are here.]

35 Comments

Gaurav October 3, 2008

hehe, nice.
One comment in lighter vein 😛 don’t get me wrong. This was asked by one of my friend on seeing another’s email ID .”Why do we tend to show our Online presence as cool?” 😛 ‘CoolGroup’ 😛

Pavan Kumar October 4, 2008

Google sms channels do not provide local sms prices… But I have a good list of group sms services which provide at local sms prices… Check out….

http://www.techpavan.com/2008/09/08/sms-group-chat-services-india/

Deepesh Sodhi October 5, 2008

@Gaurav – @Gaurav
hehe… guess second most popular pick-up word after ‘cool’ would be ‘hot’… 😛

Deepesh Sodhi October 5, 2008

@Pavan Kumar
Sending SMS to 9870807070 should technically either be local or national charge only and not any Premium charge….
Checked the link.. the list is really good and neatly captured…
Thanks for sharing!
🙂

Deepak October 6, 2008

@Deepesh Sodhi
Yup.. This is another advantage that Google SMS channels are using 10 digit mobile numbers rather that any premium service and short codes

Pavan Kumar October 6, 2008

@Deepesh Sodhi@Deepak

Do you have cheap or free sms for that number. I am using spice, Karnataka network and it costs me Rs. 0.50. Which is neither my local price [Rs.0.01] nor my National sms price [Rs.2.00]. I used TP2location service to reverse lookup phone number and found it to be Mumbai BPL mobile number… But still it does not cost me national sms cost. If you don’t know reverse lookup phone numbers refer my blog.

Deepesh Sodhi October 7, 2008

🙂 interesting,,,,, Hope Spice people know what their ‘rater’ is charging…

Deepak Jain October 7, 2008

@Pavan Kumar
Call up customer care and give a complain about it..
Say them that instead of deducting Rs 2….
and after that you’ll be charged Rs 2 😛

Pavan Kumar October 7, 2008

@Deepesh Sodhi

I did not get you…

@Deepak Jain

Who want that to occur… Anyway, I wont send any sms to them from now onwards… The first was a test sms… We have web feature na…

@ All
I checked both MyToday and Vakow with reverse lookup technique. Amazed to know they are Airtel, Karnataka numbers.

Deepesh Sodhi October 7, 2008

@Pavan Kumar
if google no is BPL mumbai then Spice must have charged you Rs 2 as per your plan!!!

Pavan Kumar October 7, 2008

@Deepesh Sodhi

Yeah, I don’t know why they charged me unusually… And also, once I messaged to MyToday’s another number 9972040000 [it is not public, I just know it], it ate up my Rs.3 which is international sms cost… 🙁

Rahul Bansal October 8, 2008

@Pavan Kumar
I guess we need more data on premium number format.
One open question is, “Can 10-digit normal looking mobile numbers can be premium number as well?”

ahmed pasha December 18, 2008

i would like make a group of my name.

Rahul Bansal December 20, 2008

@ahmed pasha
Go ahead with instructions provided in the post 🙂

Bapun March 14, 2009

I have already created three SMS channels and one of them is becoming very popular 😉 If you notice things properly you can observe that channels with Jokes/Sayari are becoming more popular. This indicates that youth generation are playing a very vital role in subscribing to Google SMS channels.

kapil June 10, 2009

dear friend,

pls tell me that is there any way that i can use google sms service to notify the members of my googlegroup say [email protected] abt each & every mail that arrives on googlegroup along with its replies by members….kindly tell me how?

Rahul Bansal June 16, 2009

@Kapil
U r asking wrong for thing.
Better create a google group and add RSS feed for [email protected] to it.
The send an email to [email protected] to inform about newly created channel for that group.

Jimmy Harrell June 11, 2009

Man I wish this was available to US mobile users. let me know when it is

Rahul Bansal June 16, 2009

@Jimmy
There must be many and better alternatives available in US. 🙂

vishal August 4, 2009

hey how can we create this channens

kapil deshwal August 28, 2009

i have creat a channel ‘SENSEX_INDIA’ how I can send sms on this channels subscribers.

basavaraj pawar December 14, 2009

this is one of the bst in india

Rishi (dharmendra singh) March 8, 2010

mobile hacking tricks from pc without using bluetooth

tushar September 27, 2010

hey i want to create my channel how to create please tell me.

sathees October 9, 2010

Kindly send me channels only updates of cricket.

anil October 31, 2010

i am join today but i dont recieve sms please send me all types mwx 8806564680

YOGESH SURASE November 28, 2010

I WANT CREATE MY GROUP SO GVN INTRUCTION CREATE AN GROUP
SO PLZ HOW TO CREATE TELL ME…GVN RLY

gami ashish January 17, 2011

hello how create this group

AMOL MALODE March 18, 2011

please tell me how to create my new group.

priya September 18, 2011

hiiiiiiiiii
i m priya
i wana create more grp on gpsup.
u can send me any type of sms

venkatesan.m January 13, 2012

i whant group sms

bhavik September 4, 2012

when i want to create my own google sms channel the error display . .. ” 500. That’s an error.
The server encountered an error and could not complete your request. ” … then how i create ????