

Google Calendar to end SMS notification on  June 27th - mason240

Important Announcement about SMS notifications in Google Calendar<p>Starting on June 27th, 2015, SMS notifications from Google Calendar will no longer be sent. SMS notifications launched before smartphones were available. Now, in a world with smartphones and notifications, you can get richer, more reliable experience on your mobile device, even offline.<p>To receive notifications on your smartphone, either configure the calendar app that came with your device or install Google Calendar for Android or iPhone. For more information on how to configure notification defaults, check out the Help Center.<p>Please note: Please note: This change will not affect Google Drive for Work, Google Apps for Work (paid edition), Education and Government customers.<p>- The Google Calendar Team
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nivals
Nooooo! The SMS notifications are a pro-hack, lifesaver, and overlooked
feature.

I get entirely too many push notifications on my lock screen, and don't check
my calendar app habitually. SMS notifications get read every time. (60% of the
time, it works every time.)

Sounds like a weekend project to roll a Twilio solution. The cost is well
worth it for me.

~~~
scott_karana
Indeed. Hopefully you can make some cash selling it to others too, like the
market vacuum caused by Reader's closure :-)

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crisnoble
Not a great replacement but might work for you:
[https://ifttt.com/recipes/295571-event-starts-soon-text-
me-a...](https://ifttt.com/recipes/295571-event-starts-soon-text-me-a-
reminder)

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alialkhatib
This is disheartening. I had Google Calendar's number whitelisted so I'd get
notifications (ie event reminders) from Google Calendar (and important people)
when I was in meetings and whatnot. Now that I can't simplistically use iOS's
contact whitelist to trump Do Not Disturb, do I have to get more involved
about which apps have permission to send me notifications? Do I even have that
fine-grained control in iOS?

~~~
citruspi
> Do I even have that fine-grained control in iOS?

You do. Settings > Application Name > Notifications > (Dis)Allow Notifications

~~~
alialkhatib
Ah, maybe I should have clarified. While I've taken _some_ care to curate the
notifications I get on my phone, there are nevertheless times that Twitter,
Facebook, Gmail, etc... would just be a nuisance. When I'm meeting with
someone, the buzz of my phone is distracting to me and strikes me as a little
rude to the other person (we both know I'm thinking about that buzz, and I
want to be completely present in that conversation), which is why I tend to
enable Do Not Disturb mode when I'm supposed to be engaged. The problem is
that _some_ notifications are valid to let through - in particular, a reminder
that I have an event in 15 minutes (particularly a one-on-one meeting) is
absolutely worth letting through.

My question was whether there's a policy suitably fine-grained to let me
whitelist an app (or a certain type of notification) so that it can get around
Do Not Disturb mode and reach me without having to completely shut down
notifications from other apps in the settings.

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mzjs
Probably just a cost issue - sending that many notifications will quickly get
expensive.

~~~
blister
Text messages are largely free, and Google has been operating as a carrier
through Google Voice for years.

I don't think they're deprecating SMS because of cost issues, I think they
just want to move forward with richer notifications and don't want to spend
any time working with a legacy system.

~~~
geogriffin
They're definitely not free for businesses, especially worldwide. Thus why
twilio is a business. Expect to pay maybe $0.03 a message. I'm not sure how
that compares to advertising revenue..

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baldfat
This was THE KILLER Feature when it was released. I was able to Create Events
with SMS which made a any phone able to use the calanders.

Now I don't need SMS for Google Calendar or Twitter or any other function
besides sending messages.

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sildur
"SMS notifications launched before smartphones were available."

Google Calendar became available on April 13, 2006. I got a Nokia smartphone
in 2002. They were available way before 2006.

~~~
rakoo
Correction: SMS notifications launched before _the_ smartphone was available.

Did we call them smartphones before the iPhone was out ?

~~~
Jtsummers
Wikipedia says the first use of the term was in 1995.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone#Early_years](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone#Early_years)

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RutDog
Does anyone know of a good alternative?

More Android unit sales is all this is about.

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ExtremeCoders
Had been using the SMS notification feature to monitor various files and
websites for availability.

Now no longer possible :(

