In April we introduced the ability to get your Action Items sent to your cell phone via SMS / Text Message. There were some loose ends left to tie up so I haven’t really blogged about it… but now I’m ready to introduce it to you. (this is a premium feature)
To set this up, login to JibberJobber and click the Account link. Scroll down to the Cell field and fill it out:
#1: This is your cell number
#2: tell us who your provider is. I know, it’s kind of creepy for us to ask, but if we know the provider then we can send you SMS messages from JibberJobber. If we don’t know your provider, we can’t do it (providers have different ways to interface with them, and we had to program them all in).
#3: Click this link and we’ll send you an SMS, which will have a code you then enter to verify the cell # is yours (or, that you have control over the cell number).
Check your cell for for a text message. The text message will have a code – simply enter it into the box:
Now you have verified you own the cell phone and can get text messages from us, click on the Preferences tab (still under the Account page). There is a checkbox to “Send Action Item reminder by SMS”. Click on the checkbox to show how many days before the Action Item is due you want a text message. I have mine set to ZERO (0), which means I get the day it is due.
This is a “global preference,” which means ALL of your Action Items, by default, will be sent to your phone via text messaging that many days before they are due.
But, you can override this for each individual Action Item. Here’s how you use this feature:
When you are in the Create Log Entry interface (there are at least 6 ways to get there), click on the Create Action Item checkbox:
Directly under the “Ends” field is the box to send your Action Item via email. NOTE: We recently gave you the ability to edit the email you get, so you can have a more descriptive email. This is REALLY COOL.
Directly under the “get Action Item by email” box is the “get Action Item on your phone” box. You can see below (1) that, by default, you’ll get the Action item on a certain date, but you can do one of two things: (a) you can uncheck the box to get the SMS, which means you WILL NOT get the SMS reminder for this particular Action Item, or (b) you can change the date just for this Action Item. You can also (2) create the contents of the SMS, so instead of getting the Title of the Action Item, you can send something much shorter or more descriptive to your phone. (3) shows you that if you don’t fill that out, you’ll simply get the Title.
So that is it!
In summary:
- Go to Accounts, set up your cell number and and validate that you have control over the phone with the code we send you.
- In Accounts, click Preferences and say how many days before the Action Item is due you want a text reminder.
- When you create an Action Item, you can leave it as the default (no action to take… ) or you can change it for each individual Action Item.
Pretty cool, huh? (remember, this is a premium feature – if you are an SMS person this is worth the $9.95/month)