Around this time last year, Google introduced SMS Channels in India that allowed mobile phone users to subscribe to information channels like news, weather, stocks, etc. through text messages.
Even bloggers could create SMS channels for their own blog (example) and send updates about new articles to their subscribers through SMS messages. The service is still around and continues to remain free for both publishers and mobile phone users though Google adds advertising in text messages.
Facebook recently introduced something similar in India so you can receive text updates on your mobile phone from the Facebook pages of your favorite brands, celebrities, restaurants or even websites.
As a mobile phone user, you can can join any Facebook page by simply texting fan <page_name> to 9232232665 (92FACEBOOK) from your mobile phone*.
For instance, if you want to join Digital Inspiration’s Facebook page, you can text “fan digital.inspiration” to 9232232665 from any mobile phone, and you will show up in the list of fans immediately.
Similarly, if you want to receive updates about a page on your cell, you can open that page on the Facebook site and choose “Subscribe via SMS”. To turn off updates, choose the unsubscribe option on the page itself or SMS “stop” to the same Facebook number – 9232232665.
Unlike Google SMS Channels which can be be used for both push updates and group communication, the SMS feature in Facebook is primarily push (for receiving updates from a page).
As a blogger, you can use this feature to notify readers about your most recently published articles while businesses can use Facebook SMS to communicate deals and offers with their customers (like Pizza Hut sending out discount coupons to all their fans in India via SMS).
*Before you start receiving updates from Facebook page, you need to activate Facebook Mobile. For that, just send a text message containing only the letter “f” (without quotes) to 9232232665 and you are done. I am not sure if your mobile carrier will charge your for any incoming text messages from Facebook but you’ll of course have to pay for sending one.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/facebook-sms-in-india/9877/
Tags: exclusive, facebook, feature, google sms, Internet
Reader Comments
Well the mobile operators don’t charge for incoming message’s I’ve tried on Airtel and Vodafone, but they do charge for sending the activation message which is a one time task.
Written by Saami Matloob on 09.16.09
Incoming SMS is total free in India and this number is belong to TATA Indicome West Bengal Telecom circle so who having a Free national sms Plan they can use it without any charge however if your mobile not having free national sms then your mobile orator will charge for national SMS so you need to pay for the outgoing sms according to your plan..normally National sms charges is 2 Rs per outgoing msg. and if anybody living in westbangal for them this no would be work as local so they just need to pay local charges for the sms.
I hope this will help, thanks
Written by Aniruddh on 09.16.09
tried couple of times giving number. got a confirmation code. But still no updates!!
Written by Moksh Juneja on 09.16.09
mine would not work, until i sent the text “f” to +91-92FACEBOOK (i had to use the country code, for airtel mumbai.)
Written by Stallon on 09.16.09
I’ve been using this for quite a while now, and it’s great! I love getting updates and responses on the go, and it’s perfect for me since I don’t use GPRS on my mobile. However, I don’t think replies more than 1 SMS (160 characters) work too well – one of my updates lost most of the content when I sent a long one.
Written by Abhimanyu Ghoshal on 09.16.09
Damn to Tata Indicom – India…they should upgrade their network…tried this thrice, first normal number, second with 0 in prefix and then +91 as prefix, no update or registration till now!
Written by Navjot Singh on 09.18.09
Ok..Got the confirmation 3 times now after almost 2 hours! Tata Indicom Sucks!
Written by Navjot Singh on 09.18.09