

Google Launches Gmail Over SMS In Emerging Markets - mitchie_luna
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/18/google-launches-gmail-over-sms-in-emerging-markets/

======
stephengillie
Link to actual release: [http://google-africa.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/send-and-
receive...](http://google-africa.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/send-and-receive-
gmail-on-your-phone-as.html)

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
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.

------
rodolphoarruda
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'

~~~
icebraining
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
Thanks!

------
JaggedJax
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....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zegoggles.smssync)

~~~
jonknee
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
All SMS or just iMessages?

~~~
cdcarter
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.

------
justauser
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
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.

------
205guy
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.

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

