Gmail SMS Now Available In Ghana,Nigeria And Kenya

Google has once more renovated itself in regard to the services it offers its customers and on Wednesday (18/6/2012), Geva Rechav, Google’s products manager-Emerging Markets announced via its Official Google Africa Blog that people in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria would now be able to send and receive e-mails (Gmail SMS) the very same way they receive SMS’s irrespective of whether their phones have internet connections or not.

Below is what their official blog says regarding their just released Gmail SMS:

“Email has become a part of everyday life. There’s so much you do with it: apply for a job, make an inquiry, get notifications from your social network, receive photos or an invitation that makes you smile, and just communicate back and forth with your friends.
The Gmail team at Google puts in a lot of effort to make sure messages are delivered as soon as you hit “send”. However, sometimes barriers arise between you and your email.  What if you’re not by a computer? Or your phone is not connected to the internet? Or the internet is down or too slow, so that emails just won’t load?
To help solve these issues, we’ve created Gmail SMS.  We’re excited to be making this new service available in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. You can now send and receive emails as SMS messages using your mobile phone, regardless of whether or not your phone has an internet connection, like Wifi or 3G. Gmail SMS works on any phone, even the most basic ones which only support voice and SMS.

Gmail SMS automatically forwards your emails as SMS text messages to your phone and you can respond by replying directly to the SMS. You can control the emails received by replying with commands such as MORE, PAUSE and RESUME. Additionally, compose a new email as an SMS and send to any email address recipient – who will find your message in the right email conversation thread!
You can register your phone from your Gmail account online in 5 easy steps:

1. In your Gmail account, click on your profile photo or account name at the top of the page and click Account 
2. Click Open SMS settings in the “Phone and SMS” section.
3. Add your phone number to receive Gmail to that number.
4. Verify your phone number by entering the verification code that we sent as SMS to your phone.
5. Check the box for email forwarding to your phone.

Last but not least, receiving Gmail SMS is free of charge.  Standard SMS rates apply when replying to messages, creating new messages and sending Gmail SMS commands from your phone.  We hope you’ll like it!”