Google Labs is really kicking off and today brings us yet another glorious creation from the Gmail team.
According to InformationWeek the Gmail team have added the ability to send an SMS message from the chat window in the left-nav panel in Gmail. While the Gmail blog has yet to display an official announcement for this new feature, InformationWeek reports that it will be posted early today.
Further expanding the possibilities for the left-nav, (which can already include chat, calender and Docs) users can now send a message from inside Gmail by entering the recipient mobile phone number into the chat window. This in turn prompts a "Send SMS" popup menu. According to InformationWeek, Google’s texting service also assigns the Gmail user a persistent pseudo-phone number, meaning the recipient can reply to the SMS later using a consistent number.
As usual, to make use of the feature you have to go into settings and activate the SMS Labs feature. GoogleWatch got a hands on demo of the feature with Gmail Product Manager, Keith Coleman who said the addition of SMS to chat was down to people becoming increasingly frustrated that they couldn’t reply to friends who signed off mid-chat. While it seems like a great idea, Gmail warns that recipients may be charged each time you hit enter so it could be pretty easy to rack up a high bill. This feature is perfect for finalizing plans with friends who’ve been disconnected but could be costly if you use it for full blown conversations.
SMS capabilities is one of many new features to come out of Google Labs in October alone. The Gmail team tout Labs as a way to test as many of their ideas as possible with more popular Labs being considered for permanent implementation.
We’ll keep an eye on the Official Gmail blog and update when there’s more information available.
- Obama Pays Over $44k for In-Game Advertising
- Turn a MacBook Into a Tablet With Axiotron's Modservice
- G1 Unlocked: It Was Only a Matter of Time
- TiVo and Netflix: Together at Last
- AT&T (Finally) Offers Free Wi-Fi for iPhones, BlackBerrys
- Computer Shaped Like a Tube: a Nettop by CLVE
- HP Expands Netbook Offerings, Adds One For Fashionistas
- Tech Companies Sign Human Rights Policy
- Google Settles Lawsuit With Book Authors in $125 Million Deal
- Apple Hires IBM Chip Designer, IBM Files Lawsuit
- Rock Band Makers Creating New Beatles Music Game
- Yahoogle Deal to be Called Off?
- Sony, Dell, Hewlett Packard Recall Laptop Batteries
- Dell's XPS One 24 All-in-One Desktop: The iMac Fighter
- Circuit City to Close 155 Stores, Faces Delisting
- The $200 EeePC is Coming
- MySpace says Pirated Videos are Good!
- Western Digital offering HDTV Add-On Media Player
- Motorola Aura - the Non-resalable Phone
I don't see it in my labs...must not be fully rolled out yet.
Hmm... I've been able to send SMS messages from Yahoo! Mail/Chat for more than a year now (both the website and stand-alone IM client). Even better, my Nokia cell-phone has a built-in Yahoo! Chat application that uses my SMS message alotment (over Yahoo! IM servers), meaning I don't need 3G or GSM to chat over IM.
GMail isn't going to be another Microsoft are they? Watching what others have already done, then getting praise for doing the same thing just cause they're Google (Chrome browser anyone)? Oh, and GMail has been out for what, 3-4 years now, I think it's time they rolled out of the Beta stage.
just get out of beta ffs
Over 2-3 years ago there was a service in google that let you send SMS to any phone without any sort of spam advertising etc that was common to free text services. I'm surprised they took away such a feature, and then took so long to reinstate it. Though in the Gmail area is a great spot for it. Yay
http://www.google.com/sendtophone = The old service I referred tp
This doesn't sound so good!
"Gmail warns that recipients may be charged each time you hit enter so it could be pretty easy to rack up a high bill."
I hope I'm not the only person who sees a problem with the above (unless there is some kind of decline option?)