

Show HN: Send SMS to your number for free from shell - oxplot
https://github.com/oxplot/gcsms

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chintan
<http://www.labnol.org/internet/website-uptime-monitor/21060/>

This Google doc script monitors your websites and sends an SMS to alert you
when down. It uses the same "Calendar->SMS" feature.

~~~
Flenser
The script there onky sends an email. I think this is the one you meant to
link to: [http://www.labnol.org/internet/website-monitoring-with-
sms-a...](http://www.labnol.org/internet/website-monitoring-with-sms-
alerts/25382/)

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jamesbritt
I just send E-mail (via a command line script) to my cell number via by own
GMail account. How is this different or better?

~~~
oxplot
Doesn't that only work for US numbers?

~~~
dredmorbius
It varies by carrier.

More specifically, it varies by carrier legacy system. Finding the correct
email-to-SMS address construction (usually some variant of
_phonenumber@domain.tld_ ) may take some poking around, and it's not uncommon
for the domain.tld portion to refer to some prior carrier acquired by the
nominal provider (e.g.: your AT&T wireless number might have a cingular.com
address, though don't quote me on that).

That said: it typically works and is fairly reliable once you've identified
your gateway.

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killahpriest
Wish this worked through Google Voice.

EDIT: [http://brettterpstra.com/2010/11/19/sms-from-the-command-
lin...](http://brettterpstra.com/2010/11/19/sms-from-the-command-line-with-
google-voice/)

~~~
nnnnni
Oh nice, NONE of this things (or text message notifications) ever work with
Google Voice because it doesn't support shortcodes =-(

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jakozaur
Wouldn't that be banned if it became somewhat popular?

~~~
oinksoft
No, that's why they have rate limiting: <https://developers.google.com/google-
apps/calendar/pricing>

I doubt that the volume of API requests originating from this script would
generate even a blip on Google's radar.

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surferbayarea
And this is interesting why?

echo 'hello world' | mail -s "message" <number>@cingularme.com

~~~
samwillis
Not all carriers offer an email to sms gateway. As far as I know here in the
UK none do.

That is why this is interesting.

~~~
killahpriest
Fortunately, most of them do.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_SMS_gateways>

AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile etc. If you want to text somebody else, you'll
have to figure out their carrier first though. :(

Is their a way determine their carrier without asking?

~~~
pudquick
The central register for area code + prefix is here:

<http://www.nanpa.com/reports/reports_cocodes_assign.html>

However, sometimes the companies listed are subsidiaries and you can't tell
the 'major' cellular provider for someone at a particular number.

~~~
amatix
In the US, does number portability between networks exist? In NZ, it causes
problems with SMS gateways, which seem to (in general) naively use the prefix
as the sole means of identifying which operator for a number.

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schmrz
This seems to be using a hack I also figured out back when I was in high
school, working on a project. I also wrote about it years later on my blog[0].
If you look at the source it creates an event with an sms remainder but the
time of the event and the scheduled time of the remainder are created in such
way that the remainder is sent immediately. There's also a low limit on the
number of characters you can use (~60).

[0]: [http://www.randomshouting.com/2011/02/06/Free-SMS-
notificati...](http://www.randomshouting.com/2011/02/06/Free-SMS-
notifications-from-Google.html)

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abyx
I blogged about this ~4 years ago :)
[http://www.codelord.net/2009/02/26/sending-sms-using-
google-...](http://www.codelord.net/2009/02/26/sending-sms-using-google-
calendar-and-the-python-api)

------
whocanfly
one can use this to add a "text me" button to a Contact page.

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veverkap
You can also use <https://github.com/bratta/googlevoiceapi>

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xSwag
On my mobile right now so cannot use this just yet, does anybody know if this
works in the UK? (with three mobile network)

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Void_
Or you can send yourself a push notification. Services like Notifo provide
HTTP API that you can use in your scripts.

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zdwalter
I use IFTTT to send SMS. for example, let IFTTT to monitor GMail, and notify
you by SMS. It's easier to send email.

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drpgq
I'm guessing this doesn't work for Canadian numbers.

~~~
dredmorbius
Not even if you postpend 'eh' to the 10 digits?

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mochizuki
Hope this doesn't lead to text bombs

~~~
oinksoft
To yourself?

~~~
TeMPOraL
Why, you can set up an instance to someone's number that you can use to send
messages to that person.

~~~
oinksoft
I'm fairly certain Google requires you enter a confirmation code when setting
up a phone number (the code is sent via SMS to the phone) for specifically
this reason. It's not as though this is the only piece of software using the
Calendar API; Google has already had to think of these potential exploits.

