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Your New Text Friend: Google Calendar and SMS

by Thomas Houston on December 1, 2010 at 04:06 PM

Google Text Message AlertsSometimes a simple SMS reminder buzzing in your pocket is enough to break all the pings and alerts hitting your computer screen throughout the day. Fortunately, Google Calendar is SMS-capable, which means you don't need a cutting-edge smartphone to get calendar alerts. Read on after the break to learn how to text your calendar.

In Google Calendar, click settings and Mobile Setup. Enter your phone number (or Google Voice/textPlus number) in the phone number field, set your country, and click 'Save.' In a few moments, your phone will receive a text from Google with a verification code. Enter that code on the 'Mobile Setup' page, and hit 'Finish Setup.' Of course, you're still subject to your carrier's texting fees, but you can use an app like Google Voice or textPlus to get around those costs.

Once you register your phone, you'll be able to text Google to get a quick rundown of your calendar. Texting "next" returns your next event, "day" gives you a full rundown of your day, and "nday" gives you tomorrow's events.

Calendar notifications
If you want to automate text notifications, you'll need to edit the settings for each of your calendars. (Click the arrow to the right of the calendar name, Calendar settings > Notifications.) Open up each of your calendars, and adjust your settings for both events and invitations. You can also set multiple reminders for upcoming events, meaning you can can get multiple e-mails, texts or Google pop-ups before an event on the selected calendar.

Google Calendar Texting
If you end up overwhelmed by Google's texting habits, you can always tweak the notifications. Just remove the check from each SMS box under each calendar's 'Notifications' tab, and hit 'Save.' If you're completely fed up, simply text STOP to 48368.

Tags: google, GoogleCalendar, sms, techtip, techtips, texting, TextMessaging

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