How to Send an SMS to make an Appointment?

RiderOnTheStorm

not sure if this has been asked before (I searched but found nothing here or on Google.... but that not to say its not out there)

Is is possible to send an SMS text to someone, and have that text arrive (or be saved) as an Appointment or calander entry? (ie, not sending it to myself)

The reason I ask is that I want to send a texts to a group I am involved with, and have it make the appointment in their phones so that they dont have to remember (they ALL have terrible memorys!)

any help is much appreciated!

Rsaeire

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

not sure if this has been asked before (I searched but found nothing here or on Google.... but that not to say its not out there)

Is is possible to send an SMS text to someone, and have that text arrive (or be saved) as an Appointment or calander entry? (ie, not sending it to myself)

The reason I ask is that I want to send a texts to a group I am involved with, and have it make the appointment in their phones so that they dont have to remember (they ALL have terrible memorys!)

any help is much appreciated!

As far as I am aware, there is no such service available to do what you describe using SMS. If such a service was available, it would be a handset specific feature that would require the sender and each recipient to be using a handset that supported that particular feature, or a software application that would send information from the sender’s handset to each recipient over GPRS/3G but again, each recipient would be required to have a compatible handset and software installed.

After searching Google, I could only come across a proposed Windows Mobile 5 solution and a Gmail solution to setup your own Calendar entries on your Gmail calendar via SMS, but no viable solution that would meet your requirements.

RiderOnTheStorm

thanks Rsaeire, I was afraid that would be the answer.

I did think that if it existed, it might be limited by the type of phone that the message was sent to.

I am looking a vCal at the moment. It might work for Nokias. Anyone know vCal?

Sam Vimes

You need to send a very specific text for it to work. This is what you send:


"Hi lads we're meeting at xx:xx on xx/xx/xx at xxxx. Set a reminder NOW!!!"

:P

Davy

If you create the appointment date and details in your phone. Then send it to any nokia it will automatically store in their calendar. When viewing the appointment in the calendar, you will see 'send' in the options menu. Send as a text message.

I haven't tried it with other manufacturers. But this should be some help at least.

Sam Vimes

I just created a to do note on my N95 and bluetoothed it to my k800i which automatically added it to the tasks

There were option to send by text, mms and infra red too

Random

Why not just use Cabbages (see Vimes sig) scedualed (I can't spell that word ever) text feature? Or is that gone Vimes?

Sam Vimes

Something very odd though. When I sent the note from the N95, the k800 registered the due date as yesterday, although the alarm time was right

And when I sent a task from the k800 to the N95 I set the alarm time as 19:35 but the N95 registered it as 21:35. Might have something to do with the fact that I'm in sweden and maybe the phones are confused about the time zone and daylight savings

RiderOnTheStorm

thanks for all that guys.

I can schedule a text to be sent to all at the appropiate time (or the day before) but I want everyone to know weeks / months before, where they should be. And for them to be able to look up their calendar to see whats coming up for the year. Thats why I want to be able to send an appointment.

The send appointment from Nokia to Nokia sounds good..... it will prob get 80% of my group. Its a good start. I wonder if I can combine 2 tasks, and send it from a Nokia using Cabbage? that way I keep costs down.... 6 or 8 reminders send to 30 people ... thats all my free texts in 1 go, but it would be worth it (and I get mt 250 free back the following month)

Sam, I have heard of that time difference before (time on sent & recieved being an hour or two out) .... could be time zone / daylight saving thing. It wouldnt matter to me anyway.

I will let you know how I get on......

thx again

Sam Vimes

Random wrote: »

Why not just use Cabbages (see Vimes sig) scedualed (I can't spell that word ever) text feature? Or is that gone Vimes?

No it still works

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

The send appointment from Nokia to Nokia sounds good..... it will prob get 80% of my group. Its a good start. I wonder if I can combine 2 tasks, and send it from a Nokia using Cabbage?

No that wouldn't work I'm afraid

Ron DMC

Sam Vimes wrote: »

No that wouldn't work I'm afraid

Would it work even if we found out the exact format of the sms that tells the phone it's a calendar entry?
Maybe try sending the calendar entry sms to a 3g modem or a phone that definitely won't support it and see how's it written? I'd imagine something like *##Cal Rest of entry details. where *##Cal is whatever the code nokia picks up to see that it's a calendar entry. There's probably something similar for contacts that are sent through sms.

It's the same process as voicemail notifications. Technically you actually get an sms but most phones now just translate the sms into a notification.

Sam Vimes

Ronny Mitchell wrote: »

Would it work even if we found out the exact format of the sms that tells the phone it's a calendar entry?
Maybe try sending the calendar entry sms to a 3g modem or a phone that definitely won't support it and see how's it written? I'd imagine something like *##Cal Rest of entry details. where *##Cal is whatever the code nokia picks up to see that it's a calendar entry. There's probably something similar for contacts that are sent through sms.

It's the same process as voicemail notifications. Technically you actually get an sms but most phones now just translate the sms into a notification.

It might work, no harm looking. I nominate you

Ron DMC

Sam Vimes wrote: »

It might work, no harm looking. I nominate you

K. I'll do it later. I'll let you know how I get on.