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Google offers free SMS via GMail

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief July 22, 2011 · 1 min read

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Google has now started offering free SMS via GMail. The free SMS service is now tucked into your GMail account and sends out to Smart, Globe and Sun Cellular subscribers.

Discovered it this afternoon and tried it.

The SMS will come from a short-code, 4664096.

Yahoo! Messenger used to do this back in early 2000 and it was very popular then. Yahoo! discontinued it because of the cost of the volume of SMS.

Not sure how Google does it but they might have the same business model as Chikka.

Update: Sent a reply back and this is now it appears in your GMail account.

The SMS reply costs Php2.00. So it basically competes with Chikka and undercuts it by Php0.50. Looks like it’s been around for some time now but just discovered it. :D

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Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

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74 Comments

efrell · 13 years ago

madz chat n tau san po kau

aFreeSMS · 14 years ago

I would like to share this free sms app,

This Free SMS App is sponsored by afreesms.com. It’s FREE to use by anyone who needs to keep in touch with and care for friends and family in the Philippines, or with anyone around the world. This free text messaging service is sent in real time and is read immediately. This is perfect to communicate urgent and important information to your loved ones.

http://www.afreesms.com/intl/philippines

Unlimited Free SMS · 15 years ago

bakit ndi ako makapost? share ko lng nman free sms ei

Unlimited Free SMS P · 15 years ago

e2 free sms sa pinas unlimited http://pinoywap.net/free-sms.php

kwong2046 · 15 years ago

SMS replies to Google SMS actually cost Php 1.00 per msg.

laptops batteries · 15 years ago

dell inspiron 1525 battery

Jonaflormicfren · 15 years ago

Want to find this out, as of now i’m using chikka.

karl · 15 years ago

SIR YUGA same ba ito sa chikka na kapag ndi nagreply ung sinendan mo ng sms, ndi ka na rin makakapag send sa kanya ng sms?

goodha · 15 years ago

tried it but took very long to receive it.actually, more than 10 minutes and counting, wala pa ako nareceive. i will try it again some other time.

goodha · 15 years ago

update: working with smart. but with globe, still no received sms.

nadinekyut · 14 years ago

well, it works perfectly for me. globe po ako. ok naman sya. baka sa reception din sa area mo, or minsan talaga may delay sa globe. hehe.

adam · 15 years ago

I will try this one.

makenzo · 15 years ago

libre na nga may nagrereklamo pa, hahaha pinoy nga naman. :)

netsektor · 15 years ago

Tama ka, puro angal sila eh wala naman pumipilit na gamitin nila yung libreng offering ng Gmail. tsk tsk tsk. Ibang klase talaga mga taong ganyan.

Thanks gmail for giving us an alternative.

Dexter | Techathand · 15 years ago

It has been working in Saudi Arabia for a long time :)

Ry · 15 years ago

I do not know if you also knew this but you can call any USA numbers as well for FREE using your GMAIL account. This is FREE until December 2011 :)

Eason · 15 years ago

This better than chicka since it doesn’t pretend to become another number, so when you reply you will know that its from a PC.

moonfish · 15 years ago

just read the gmail help and it only started June 30 2011 which is posted on gmail help-sms

Numb Hands · 15 years ago

Kahit naman nandyan yung free text di pa rin sya useful kung sa mobile phone ka magaaccess ng gmail. Ang hirap kaya maghanap ng wifi hotspot edi magload na lang ako.

baste · 15 years ago

the number you indicate that the message will come from is wrong! im guessing each gmail account has his own number

JayBEsguerra · 15 years ago

There is actually a limit of 50 sms per day.

“SMS quotas in Chat

Initially, you’re granted a quota of fifty messages. Every time you send a message, your quota decreases by one.
Every time you receive an SMS message in Chat (for example when a phone user replies to one of your messages) your quota increases by five, up to a maximum of 50.

If your quota goes down to zero at any point, it will increase back up to one 24 hours later. So, you won’t ever be locked out of the system.”

Iyan Sommerset · 15 years ago

Is there a way to access the feature through gmail or something on an Android phone? Would be pretty awesome…free texting as long as you have free WiFi. :P Or unlimited texts for 5php/15min. :P

adm · 15 years ago

You can try Chikka App for Android or iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. You can send unlimited free text messages.
http://www.techalang.com/2011/06/chikka-app-for-ios-and-android-start-sending-free-sms-from-your-mobile-device/

tomi · 15 years ago

i tried replying on it and it only cost me a peso! it’s a globe number, though. haven’t tried to reply with a smart number.

deiniel · 15 years ago

cool, csseyah’s right, nice backup to incase maubusan ng load

csseyah · 15 years ago

Wow… great news ito sir yuga… nice backup ito pagnaubusan ako ng load… :) thanks thanks

wanderer · 15 years ago

can i use my mobile phone to text someone?

just_curious · 15 years ago

old news. this has been available for months already.

kebbot · 15 years ago

this is not new….. but I havnt use it… is this the same with chikka? if you can’t replyto chikk ass numeber,the sender cannot send you a text message again?

Ads · 15 years ago

Im loving the new threaded sms messaging of E6. Im waiting fot its price to go down further and will make it my back up phone for my android :)

James S · 15 years ago

If you care about the P2 cost of replying, you could just tell the person you’re texting to reply to your mobile (Globe/Sun/Smart) number for the normal P1 charge while you get to text them for free!

Straw Hat Luffy · 15 years ago

ang galing talaga ni google, sila na.

raul barrios · 15 years ago

i’m confused…I thought it was free, why is there a cost of 2 pesos indicated at the bottom?

raul barrios · 15 years ago

oh sorry…got it now…hehe

Rj · 15 years ago

Nice Gmail is really starting to be an all-in-one access like facebook, google+, and now with free sms.

iamdoods · 15 years ago

Everytime my line is redirected, I use it as an alternative. I think since they placed that Send SMS option on GMail, it’s been usable for sneding SMS locally.