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Google Calendar Ends SMS Notifications

Posted by timothy on from the giveth-and-taketh-away dept.

LuserOnFire writes: Google has sent out an email this morning that says in part: "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." You can find the announcement on Google's support pages as well. "Richer" may be accurate, but I'm not sure that "more reliable" describes web-based notifications; that may be why the announcement linked does not apply for Google's "Work, Education and Government customers."

5 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Yes more reliable by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Informative

    Smartphone based notifications are not web based. The idea is that your device runs a calendar app and syncs with Google Calendar. You then get notifications regardless if you are online or outside a coverage area, hence more reliable than notifications which only work via sms.

    1. Re:Yes more reliable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, you are the idiot. The calendar is cached. You don't need ANY signal to get the notification. For example, when I go camping there is no signal. So I put it into airplane mode and just use it as a camera. Battery lasts a few days like that. But it still gets calendar notifications. No unreliable SMS messages required.

    2. Re:Yes more reliable by swillden · · Score: 4, Informative

      And SMS is the most reliable because it involves the voice signaling channel and telephone companies are more or less required to reliably deliver them.

      Not with newer phones; Verizon's new model phones all deliver SMS via the data network.

      But your smartphone calendar can notify you even when you don't have service. That's a level of reliability SMS can't touch.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  2. Re:'Dumb' phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you can't afford it, you don't count to google since you don't have what google wants.

  3. Inevitable Slashdot mobile phone comments by swb · · Score: 4, Informative

    1) Someone will always comment on their continued use and the superiority of an essentially obsolete Nokia handset, whether it is an older feature phone or an N900.

    2) A pissing match will take place between otherwise zealous technology advocates as to how little they pay for mobile service, often coupled with how little value they find in mobile data or contemporary smartphones.