Example Applications of SMS
Messaging
There are
many different kinds of SMS
applications on the market today and
many others are being developed.
Applications in which SMS messaging
can be utilized are virtually
unlimited. We will describe some
common examples of SMS applications
below to give you some ideas of what
can be done with SMS messaging.
Person-to-Person Text Messaging
Person-to-person text messaging is
the most commonly used SMS
application and it is what the SMS
technology was originally designed
for. In these kinds of text
messaging applications, a mobile
user types an SMS text message using
the keypad of his/her mobile phone,
then he/she inputs the mobile phone
number of the recipient and clicks a
certain option on the screen, such
as "Send" or "OK", to send the text
message out. When the recipient
mobile phone receives the SMS text
message, it will notify the user by
giving out a sound or vibrating. The
user can read the SMS text message
some time later or immediately and
can send a text message back if
he/she wants.
A chat
application is another kind of
person-to-person text messaging
application that allows a group of
people to exchange SMS text messages
interactively. In a chat
application, all SMS text messages
sent and received are displayed on
the mobile phone's screen in order
of date and time. SMS text messages
written by different mobile users
may be displayed in different colors
for better readability, like this:
Provision of Information
A popular
application of the SMS technology
other than person-to-person text
messaging is the provision of
information to mobile users. Many
content providers make use of SMS
text messages to send information
such as news, weather report and
financial data to their subscribers.
Many of these information services
are not free. Reverse billing SMS is
a common way used by content
providers to bill their users. The
user is charged a certain fee for
each reverse billing SMS message
received. The fee will either be
included in the monthly mobile phone
bill or be deducted from prepaid
card credits.
Downloading
SMS
messages can carry binary data and
so SMS can be used as the transport
medium of wireless downloads.
Objects such as ringtones,
wallpapers, pictures and operator
logos can be encoded in one or more
SMS messages depending on the
object's size. Like information
services, wireless download services
are usually not free and reverse
billing SMS is a common way used by
content providers to bill their
customers. The object to be
downloaded is encoded in one or more
reverse billing SMS messages. The
mobile user who requests the object
will be charged a certain fee for
each reverse billing SMS message
received. If the mobile user is
using a monthly mobile phone service
plan, the download fee will be
included in his/her next monthly
bill; if the mobile user is using a
prepaid SIM card, the download fee
will be deducted from the prepaid
credits.
Alerts and Notifications
SMS is a
very suitable technology for
delivering alerts and notifications
of important events. This is because
of two reasons:
- A
mobile phone is a device that is
carried by its owner most of the
time. Whenever an SMS text
message is received, the mobile
phone will notify you by giving
out a sound or by vibrating. You
can check what the SMS text
message contains immediately.
- SMS
technology allows the "push" of
information. This is different
from the "pull" model where a
device has to poll the server
regularly in order to check
whether there is any new
information. The "pull" model is
less suitable for alert and
notification applications, since
it wastes bandwidth and
increases server load.
Some
common examples of SMS alert and
notification applications are
described below.
Email, Fax and Voice Message
Notifications
In an
email notification system, a server
sends a text message to the user's
mobile phone whenever an email
arrives at the inbox. The SMS text
message can include the sender's
email address, the subject and the
first few lines of the email body.
An email notification system may
allow the user to customize various
filters so that an SMS alert is sent
only if the email message contains
certain keywords or if the email
sender is an important person. The
use cases for fax or voice message
are similar.
E-commerce and Credit Card
Transaction Alerts
Whenever
an e-commerce or credit card
transaction is made, the server
sends a text message to the user's
mobile phone. The user can know
immediately whether any unauthorized
transaction has been made.
Stock Market Alerts
In a stock
market alert application, a program
is constantly monitoring and
analyzing the stock market. If a
certain condition is satisfied, the
program will send a text message to
the user's mobile phone to notify
him/her of the situation. For
example, you can configure the alert
system such that if the stock price
of a company is lower than a certain
value or drops by a certain
percentage, it will send an SMS
alert to you.
Remote System Monitoring
In a
remote system monitoring
application, a program (sometimes
with the help of a group of sensors)
is constantly monitoring the status
of a remote system. If a certain
condition is satisfied, the program
will send a text message to the
system administrator to notify
him/her of the situation. For
example, a program may be written to
"ping" a server regularly. If no
response is received from the
server, the program can send an SMS
alert to the system administrator to
notify him/her that the server may
be hanged.
Two-way Interactive Text
Messaging Applications
SMS
messaging technology can be used as
the underlying communication medium
between wireless devices and servers
in a two-way interactive text
messaging application. For example,
search engines are two-way
interactive text messaging
applications. Let's say there is a
dictionary search engine that
supports queries in SMS text
messages. It may operate like this:
- To
find out the meaning of the term
"SMS text messaging", you can
type "find: SMS text messaging"
in an SMS text message and send
it to the search engine's phone
number. After receiving your SMS
text message, the search engine
parses it and finds that it
begins with the command "find"
and follows by the words "SMS
text messaging". The search
engine then knows you want to
find out the meaning of the term
"SMS text messaging". So, it
sends a text message, which
contains the meaning of the term
"SMS text messaging", back to
your mobile phone.
- If
the search result is very long
and it cannot contain within a
single SMS text message, the
search engine adds "Page 1 of
2", "Page 1 of 3", etc, at the
end of the reply SMS text
message. The search engine also
creates a session using your
mobile phone number as the
session ID and stores the term
that you searched for (i.e. "SMS
text messaging") in the session
object.
- To
request the second page, you can
send a text message with the
content "page: 2" to the search
engine's phone number. After
receiving your SMS text message,
the search engine parses it and
finds that it begins with the
command "page" and follows by
"2". The search engine then
knows you want the second page
of the search result. It
retrieves the term that you
searched for last time from the
session object and finds that it
is "SMS text messaging". The
search engine then sends a text
message that contains the second
page of the search result for
the term "SMS text messaging"
back to your mobile phone.
Many other
two-way interactive text messaging
applications can be built using a
similar way. For example, a company
may want to build an SMS messaging
application to enable its employees
to query the corporate database
while they are working outdoors.
SMS Marketing
SMS
messaging can be used as a marketing
tool. An example is an SMS
newsletter system. After signing up,
the user will receive SMS text
messages about the latest discounts
and products of the company. If the
user has any question or comment,
he/she can send a text message back
with the question or comment in it.
The company may include its phone
number in the SMS newsletter so that
the user can talk to the customer
service staff directly if he/she
wants to do so. |
