When Google+ launched in June of last year, SMS features were only available in India and the US. Now, Google announced in a blog post that the company has opened up the service to 41 new countries which are:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Benin, Cambodia, Cameroon,
Congo (DRC), Cote D'Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Indonesia, Iraq,
Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi,
Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Tanzania,
Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia.
The SMS translates to web activity
While Google+, in its efforts to get on every device, has iOS and
Android apps out in their respective retail locations, they realize the
importance of being able to share information when you don't have a data
connection. The Google+ SMS service allows users to communicate with
other Google+ users, including friends in their own Circles via SMS. The
service in India supports all carriers (unlike Twitter, which only
supports Reliance, Tata Docomo, Videocon and Bharti Airtel) and to send
an SMS for a Google+ update, you type out your message and send it to
+919222222222. Make sure you have the correct number of 2s in there.
This service also supports all makes of mobile phones.
To set up the Google+ SMS service, as mentioned earlier, you need to
first have a Google+ account. Then, you add your phone number in the
Google+ settings page. You will receive a notification message on your
phone that you've added your number. Enter the code from your phone into
the verification box. You can then also select which further SMS
notifications you want to receive. Of course, standard message and data
rates might apply. Notifications include comments on your posts on
Google+ as well as messages sent to you on Google+ itself. Furthermore,
you can post updates to your Circles via SMS and respond to comments or
+1 posts directly via your phone using SMS.
Google+ has also made it clear that there are security risks to this
feature where an SMS can be spoofed. They say you can create an
alphanumeric PIN in your notification delivery settings to secure your
account. To use the alphanumberic pin you created, include the PIN
before your SMS post and Circles. So an example would look like, "A1B2C3
Will see you at the game +soccer folks". The +Soccer folks is the
Circle you're sharing with.
While it's clear that Google+ has an SMS feature to increase activity
on the social network, users first have to be active on the service for
the web itself. What would have been nice is if users could send text
messages to their friends who are not on Google+, just like how Google
Voice provides cheap and free phone services. Do you use Google+? Will
you use their SMS service? Let us know in the comments section below.