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Google Calendar to end SMS notification on June 27th

19 points by mason240 ↗ HN
Important Announcement about SMS notifications in Google Calendar

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.

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.

Please note: Please note: This change will not affect Google Drive for Work, Google Apps for Work (paid edition), Education and Government customers.

- The Google Calendar Team

18 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 47.1 ms ] thread
mzjs
Probably just a cost issue - sending that many notifications will quickly get expensive.
scott_karana
So why aren't they shuttering Google Voice, where people use up millions of hours of speech and SMS every day?

I'm sure Calendar SMSes pale in comparison.

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..
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 ?

Nicholas_C
I think we called Blackberry phones and Sony Ericsson phones "smartphones", which existed before iPhones.
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 :-)
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.

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

Now no longer possible :(

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.

RutDog
Does anyone know of a good alternative?

More Android unit sales is all this is about.