by Ryan Shell on January 18, 2010
In late December as I was planning to go to Mexico I learned that talking on the phone and sending text messages wasn’t exactly inexpensive today.
As I mulled over the best way to handle the potential costs involved I wrote a quick post about how great it would be for cell carriers to create text message away messages.
Here’s a short bit from that post,
“Imagine how great t would be if I could turn on an away message, which would also prompt the system to basically hold my text messages until I turn the away message off.”
I’m back to my day-to-day routine at this point, but still see a value in the away message concept.
Any chance you know someone that will send you a text, and a subsequent text if you don’t respond for some reason? If not, are there times that you receive a text, but for whatever reason can’t respond? A text message away message would be perfect for both scenarios.
If you are new to this blog you may have missed my post from early November titled, “An afternoon at the movies.” It basically highlighted how I managed to get kicked out of the movies. Give it a read, you’ll laugh at me.
This particular theatre was playing Sherlock Holmes at a time that fit into my schedule yesterday so I opted to give in and pay them another visit. During the movie I received several text messages, but refused to take my phone out of my coat pocket. I simply didn’t want to be the tool that got kicked out of the movies twice!
Text message away messages would be perfect for instances like this. I/you could simply say, “In a movie. Will text you back when I’m out.”
What do you think, is this something that you would find useful?
by Ryan Shell on December 23, 2009
On Friday, I’ll be completing my New Years Resolution of traveling once a month this year by heading to Mexico. Earlier today I finally got around to figuring out if my cell phone would work in the Cancun/Playa del Carmen area, and if so, how much it was going to cost me.
The good news is that AT&T says my iPhone should work just fine. The bad news is that it’s going to cost an arm and a leg to talk and text.
After learning this bit of info, I quickly put my frugal hat on and thought to myself, “I’ll just use the Web to communicate and bypass talk/text.” Not so fast. There’s a pricey charge for that as well.
Then I thought, I’ll just use my phone to take pictures when I’m out and about and a camera isn’t super convenient. This makes sense because I’ll likely have my phone on me anyway – not having a phone doesn’t sit very well with me.
But here is the problem. As soon as I turn my phone on a flood of text messages could come through costing me around $.50 each! This is where text message away messages would come in handy.
Imagine how great t would be if I could turn on an away message, which would also prompt the system to basically hold my text messages until I turn the away message off.
That would rock!
And if that won’t work, AT&T should allow the messages to be downloaded to my phone, but only charge if I choose to open a message. It just doesn’t seem right to be charged for a flood of the messages that you really can’t control.
So how about it? Can I get a “woot woot” for text message away messages?
Update: I wasn’t quite satisfied with my earlier AT&T call so I opted to call back. The first person told me something that wasn’t exactly correct, at least that’s what I was just told. Apparently you are only charged for sending text messages while out of the country. Incoming text messages are treated as normal messages. While this is good news, the away message would still be valid as it would let folks know why they aren’t receiving a response.
In late December as I was planning to go to Mexico I learned that talking on the phone and sending text messages wasn’t exactly inexpensive today.