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Google Launches Gmail Over SMS In Emerging Markets

43 points by mitchie_luna 14y ago

wazzupp 14y ago
So India isn't an "emerging market"? Only 8.5% of population has broadband connection in India..
stephengillie 14y ago
Link to actual release: http://google-africa.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/send-and-receive-gmail-on-your-phone-as.html http://google-africa.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/send-and-receive... Apparently you can text "MORE" to see more of an email. So are users limited to 140-character chunks, or will Google expand this into MMS? For that matter, how widespread is MMS vs SMS in emerging markets?
- blablabla123 14y ago
  Most cell phones produced in the last 5 or even 10 years automatically concatenate chunked SMS. Looking at the screenshots, the capacity is at least 6*140.
justauser 14y ago
Very interesting. This is a brilliant idea but I'm honestly surprised something like this wasn't done by RIM(Blackberry). This is a major market for Blackberry and they are still releasing new 2G phones(e.g. 9220 just released).
- nolok 14y ago
  I feel like missing those sort of opportunities is pretty much why RIM is doing so poorly these days. It seems like they forgot what they are and what they do best.
rodolphoarruda 14y ago
I read this news with an incredible sense of synchronicity. Two hours ago I was eating a Subway sub and thinking how handy it would be to receive emails in my old Nokia phone via SMS. I do have an Android phone, but I don't take it in my bike rides. This SMS feature would be very welcome. Edit: typo on 'synchronicity'
- mitjak 14y ago
  Or on an even broader scale: delivering timely content, news in particular, to those without computers, via SMS.
- icebraining 14y ago
  If you don't particular care about the privacy of those messages - and let's face it, it's non-encrypted email - there's plenty of cheap email-to-sms gateways out there. You just need to register for one and then set up a filter to forward the messages (keeping a copy on Gmail).
  - rodolphoarruda 14y ago
    Thanks!
JaggedJax 14y ago
One of the benefits mentioned is essentially having a record/backup of sms messages. I've always felt bad about loosing all my text messages when I get a new phone or run out of space. With my past few phones I've used this app to save all my sms messages to my Gmail account: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zegoggles.smssync https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zegoggles....
- jonknee 14y ago
  You don't lose SMS if you're on iOS, your new device has all the content of the old one. That's a nice part of the walled garden I suppose.
  - untog 14y ago
    All SMS or just iMessages?
    - cdcarter 14y ago
      All SMS. To the user there is no meaningful distinction between SMS and iMessage, except for the extra features. My mother, as an example, just thought that some contacts were green and some were blue as a nice way to make things interesting.
- seagreen 14y ago
  That's one of the things I like about Google Voice.
cabirum 14y ago
Isn't it a security hole? Normally, you work with Gmail using https, and sms messages are plain text which could be read and/or collected by mobile operators.
- icebraining 14y ago
  For a security conscious user, probably. For the regular user, I'd say it's way, way more probable that their PC is infested with email stealing malware than their mobile provider selling the SMS or someone using GSM sniffing equipment.
lozf 14y ago
Now we can look forward to 419 scams in text-speak :/
205guy 14y ago
And today, I was just thinking about ditching my data plan on my iPhone (or more exactly, getting a MVNO SIM and turning off 3G). And of course, that made me wonder if there was an app for accessing dial-up.

43 points by mitchie_luna 14y ago

So India isn't an "emerging market"? Only 8.5% of population has broadband connection in India..

Link to actual release: http://google-africa.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/send-and-receive-gmail-on-your-phone-as.html http://google-africa.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/send-and-receive... Apparently you can text "MORE" to see more of an email. So are users limited to 140-character chunks, or will Google expand this into MMS? For that matter, how widespread is MMS vs SMS in emerging markets?

blablabla123 14y ago
Most cell phones produced in the last 5 or even 10 years automatically concatenate chunked SMS. Looking at the screenshots, the capacity is at least 6*140.

justauser 14y ago

Very interesting. This is a brilliant idea but I'm honestly surprised something like this wasn't done by RIM(Blackberry). This is a major market for Blackberry and they are still releasing new 2G phones(e.g. 9220 just released).

nolok 14y ago
I feel like missing those sort of opportunities is pretty much why RIM is doing so poorly these days. It seems like they forgot what they are and what they do best.

rodolphoarruda 14y ago

I read this news with an incredible sense of synchronicity. Two hours ago I was eating a Subway sub and thinking how handy it would be to receive emails in my old Nokia phone via SMS. I do have an Android phone, but I don't take it in my bike rides. This SMS feature would be very welcome. Edit: typo on 'synchronicity'

mitjak 14y ago
Or on an even broader scale: delivering timely content, news in particular, to those without computers, via SMS.
icebraining 14y ago
If you don't particular care about the privacy of those messages - and let's face it, it's non-encrypted email - there's plenty of cheap email-to-sms gateways out there. You just need to register for one and then set up a filter to forward the messages (keeping a copy on Gmail).
- rodolphoarruda 14y ago
  Thanks!

JaggedJax 14y ago

One of the benefits mentioned is essentially having a record/backup of sms messages. I've always felt bad about loosing all my text messages when I get a new phone or run out of space. With my past few phones I've used this app to save all my sms messages to my Gmail account: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zegoggles.smssync https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zegoggles....

jonknee 14y ago
You don't lose SMS if you're on iOS, your new device has all the content of the old one. That's a nice part of the walled garden I suppose.
- untog 14y ago
  All SMS or just iMessages?
  - cdcarter 14y ago
    All SMS. To the user there is no meaningful distinction between SMS and iMessage, except for the extra features. My mother, as an example, just thought that some contacts were green and some were blue as a nice way to make things interesting.
seagreen 14y ago
That's one of the things I like about Google Voice.

cabirum 14y ago

Isn't it a security hole? Normally, you work with Gmail using https, and sms messages are plain text which could be read and/or collected by mobile operators.

icebraining 14y ago
For a security conscious user, probably. For the regular user, I'd say it's way, way more probable that their PC is infested with email stealing malware than their mobile provider selling the SMS or someone using GSM sniffing equipment.

lozf 14y ago

Now we can look forward to 419 scams in text-speak :/

205guy 14y ago

And today, I was just thinking about ditching my data plan on my iPhone (or more exactly, getting a MVNO SIM and turning off 3G). And of course, that made me wonder if there was an app for accessing dial-up.