Get your thumbs ready: SMS for Windows Live

Let me confess this up front, I LOVE SMS. If you’re like me, or even if you only use SMS occasionally, then the new SMS for Windows Live service may become your favorite feature. We’ve just launched several new services in the United States that let you see and update your information on Windows Live using SMS (text messaging). No mobile browser or data plan needed – if you can send and receive text messages on your mobile phone then you should check out SMS for Windows Live. If you’re in the UK, you might have already tried these services out…if not, now is a good time to do so.

If you’re outside of the US or the UK, we don’t have any dates to announce yet about when SMS for Windows Live will be available in other areas. We’ll update you as soon as we know more.

So what will SMS for Windows Live do for you? In short you can:

• Update your personal message
• Check your Windows Live Calendar
• Invite people to join your network
• Get contact info for people in your Windows Live contact list

To use these services, first you’ll need to register your mobile number with Windows Live (if you haven’t done this yet, we’ll tell you more about it at the end of this blog post), and then you’ll just send a text message (SMS) with a “command” to a shortcode:

• If you’re in the US and your mobile operator is AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, or Nextel, your shortcode is MyLive or 695483.
• If you’re in the UK and your mobile operator is Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, O2, or Virgin, your shortcode is 88804.

Standard SMS messaging costs apply in both the US and UK. So your mobile operator will charge your normal rate for each text message you send and receive. There’s no additional charge from Microsoft.

How to use the new SMS services

After you’ve registered your phone number, and started the service, you’re ready to start sending commands. Below are all of the things you can do with SMS for Windows Live, along with the commands you’ll need to know.

Update your personal message
To update your personal message ([Updated: June 12, 2009] the one that appears on your Profile page, not the one and in Messenger): create a new text message, type the command update followed by your personal message, and send it to the shortcode.

Check your calendar
To see your Windows Live Calendar events for today or tomorrow: Send a text message with the command today or tomorrow. Windows Live sends you a text message that lists the date, time, and subject of each event. To get more details about an event, reply with the event number.

Send this to get a list of today’s events	You’ll get a reply like this one (but with your events, of course)

Invite people to your network
With just an SMS command and an e-mail address you can use your phone to invite a friend to join your network. To send a network invitation: send a text message with the command invite followed by their e-mail address.

You send the invite	You’ll get a reply confirming that the invite was sent

Search your contacts
If you aren’t syncing your Windows Live contacts (or if you don’t have a Windows Mobile phone and can’t sync), you can use SMS commands to search your contacts and see contact details. To search your Windows Live contacts: Send a text message with the command srch followed by the name of the person you’re looking for.

Send srch and a name	You’ll get a reply with your search results

To register your mobile phone and start using SMS for Windows Live

To use SMS for Windows Live, you need to register your phone and start the service. Don’t worry, it’s simple. Here’s how you do it:

1. On a computer go to the Window Live Mobile website and sign in with your Windows Live ID.
2. In the text box under Set up SMS, enter your mobile phone number and click Next.
3. Check your phone info, if everything looks good, click Next. If any of the info isn’t correct, click change it and make your corrections.
4. We’ll send a text message with a four-digit PIN code to your mobile phone. Enter the PIN code and click Next.
5. Your mobile phone number is registered with your Windows Live account. Now you need to start the service. To start using the new SMS for Windows Live services, under Personal Message, Calendar and Contacts, click Start. You’re all set to go!
   If you haven’t tried the other Windows Live SMS services (they’re not new, but maybe they’re new to you) now is a great time to do so. Under Hotmail, Messenger and other alerts, click Start and check out how you can use text messaging with Hotmail, Messenger and alerts.
6. After you start the service you’ll get another text message with some additional info that our lawyers want us to tell you about.

Tip: Save the text message sender as a contact in your mobile phone, so you’ll have it handy when you need it.

Enjoy the new SMS for Windows Live services!

- Dawn Hollingsworth, avid texter
  Windows Live team

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