Social Networking Web Design

Do you have GMail or GChat?  Do you have a mobile phone on a major US wireless carrier?

You may be in luck, then.  The chat-to-SMS functionality that was rolled out a couple weeks ago, then hastily retracted, has been debuted on GMail and is available to most users.

It’s yet another Labs feature, the experimental feature area of GMail that has been getting regular updates over the last several months. This feature introduces yet another way you can be tethered to those you correspond with electronically.

Quick testing here at Mashable shows that most major carriers are supported, but for oddballs like me on regional networks like MetroPCS are not serviced by the new capability, and users who message those on unsupported networks will be greeted with the message indicating as such.

To activate the service, simply scroll down under the Settings >> Labs link until you see “Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat” and select Enable and Save Changes. To actually send a message, when you click on the “search, add or invite” blank in GMail, on the pop-up menu will be an option to “Send SMS.”  You’ll be prompted to enter their mobile number, which will then send all chats to their phone.

Other than the minor network incompatibilities, it seems like one of the most convenient ways to annoy the crap out of your friends from Google yet!

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Three New Ways to Play With Gmail LabelsGMail Phasing In IMAPGmail Mobile Gets an UpdateBe Careful if You Access Gmail Through a Public HotspotNew GMail Features Show Up In Some AccountsGmail Storage Is Now 6 GigabytesGmail Mobile Version 1.5 Not Lookin’ So Good

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