Free SMS reminders for your to-do items, appointments, bills, etc.
March 4th, 2009
Here’s a time and money saving tip for y’all… If you’re one of the forgetful type who is always asking other people to remind them to do things, you can now utilise Google to do the same thing for absolutely free.
How?
photo: J_O_I_D
Firstly, you’ll need to sign up with Google Calendar (previously reviewed) and then set up your mobile device with it. If you’ve got a Google Account (e.g. you already use Gmail), you can use that log in. To set up your device, you just need to enter your cellphone number on the Calendar Settings and then enter your confirmation code to prove that you entered the right number!
Once you’ve set up SMS reminders, you can choose to add SMS reminders to any events you add to your calendar. Although you’re supposed to use it for appointments: there’s no reason why you couldn’t set up reminders for bill payments, to-do items, deadlines, etc.
Unless your cellphone network charges you to receive text messages, these SMS reminders shouldn’t cost anything at all.
What network/providers are supported?
These include:
photo: TheBusyBrain
UK: Three, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone
US: Lots of carriers listed but not on prepaid plans unfortunately
France: Bouygues, Orange, SFR
Germany: E-Plus, O2, T-Mobile, Vistream, Vodafone
If you live in a different country, Google lists a huge number of providers in lots of countries so there is a good chance your existing cellphone network will support this.
More information
See Google’s help page.
Hope this helps!
About the Author: Hi! I'm Ken. I've been using mobiles for over 10 years and technology for a lot longer! I'd love to hear from you.
That’s a cool idea. I’m always forgetting stuff. I’ve been meaning to buy myself a diary to write things down in, but I forgot to do it.
For appointments with the doctor, the dentist, physiotherapist, psychologist, etc, it would be better not to have to worry about setting up your own reminders.
Most people in these professions do remind their clients / patients in some way or other. Unfortunately for too many of them it is with a phone call the day before the appointment – so I STILL have to write it down.
There are plenty of systems though that will automatically send text reminders. Here in Australia, one of the best ones is OAM2.
If your dentist or doctor is still calling to remind you – or worse NOT reminding you – maybe you should hint at them to get an automated solution!