Friends of Comic Cons

Forum Development => Forum Help and Technical FAQs => Topic started by: Michaelnaut on March 26, 2022, 04:55:04 AM

Title: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: Michaelnaut on March 26, 2022, 04:55:04 AM
Does anyone know if it's possible to have notifications here send a text message to a phone number? Before I start looking at different/other ways to see how to do that.
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: alyssa on March 26, 2022, 08:07:34 AM
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Does anyone know if it's possible to have notifications here send a text message to a phone number? Before I start looking at different/other ways to see how to do that.
@Michael M (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2539)
Do you mean for replies to threads and/or PM's here?

it sounds like an interesting feature to enable/install/configure. I like the idea
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: SteveD on March 26, 2022, 08:26:14 AM
If you want all correspondence from FoCC sent as text messages, you could change your forum email address to your 10 digit phone number @ your cell phone provider.
Then set up notifications to send an email.
That should work.
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: alyssa on March 26, 2022, 08:51:22 AM
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If you want all correspondence from FoCC sent as text messages, you could change your forum email address to your 10 digit phone number @ your cell phone provider.
Then set up notifications to send an email.
That should work.
Wanna do a 'talk to me like i'm 5' walkthrough for that ;)

I can see it being very useful to the folks in the hotel exchange @SteveD (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3710)
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: SteveD on March 26, 2022, 09:10:45 AM
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Wanna do a 'talk to me like i'm 5' walkthrough for that ;)

I can see it being very useful to the folks in the hotel exchange @SteveD (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3710)
Maybe this link (https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-send-a-text-from-your-email-account/) will help.
Once you have the correct gateway domain for your carrier, you can change your FoCC email address to your phone number @ your gateway domain.
Then any notifications sent to your email address will instead be sent via text.

CarrierSMS Gateway DomainMMS Gateway Domain
AT&T[email protected][email protected]
Boost Mobile[email protected][email protected]
Cricket Wireless[email protected][email protected]
Google Project Fi[email protected][email protected]
Republic Wireless[email protected]None
Sprint[email protected][email protected]
Straight Talk[email protected][email protected]
T-Mobile[email protected][email protected]
Ting[email protected]None
TracfoneDepends on underlying carrier[email protected]
U.S. Cellular[email protected][email protected]
Verizon[email protected][email protected]
Virgin Mobile[email protected][email protected]
            
*One final thing to note is if you use Boost, Cricket Wireless, Republic Wireless, Straight Talk, Ting, or Tracfone -- all of which are mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) -- you may need to enter the gateway address belonging to either Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, or AT&T, rather than those in the above list, as they all piggyback on these major networks.
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: alyssa on March 26, 2022, 09:27:29 AM
@NCDS (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2339)
you're my test case, do you understand this? and why it's useful?
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: NCDS on March 26, 2022, 09:47:11 AM
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@NCDS (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2339)
you're my test case, do you understand this? and why it's useful?

Why am I being quizzed?  I was up until 3 am, take it easy on the questions.  Lol

I think people being able to get text during exchange would helpful. Too many people set up emails they don't check.  Though one could argue they could just change their email to one they check.

I can test set it up in a bit and we can see how/if it works.
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: Michaelnaut on March 26, 2022, 11:20:24 AM
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Wanna do a 'talk to me like i'm 5' walkthrough for that ;)

I can see it being very useful to the folks in the hotel exchange @SteveD (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3710)
This is exactly why I asked :)
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: alyssa on March 26, 2022, 11:27:26 AM
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Why am I being quizzed?  I was up until 3 am, take it easy on the questions.  Lol
'cuz you've had no problem telling me to bugger off in the past
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: Michaelnaut on March 26, 2022, 11:29:54 AM
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If you want all correspondence from FoCC sent as text messages, you could change your forum email address to your 10 digit phone number @ your cell phone provider.
Then set up notifications to send an email.
That should work.
Is there a way to do this for just a specific thread? Would hate to have *all* notifications go to my phone.
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: NCDS on March 26, 2022, 11:45:20 AM
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Is there a way to do this for just a specific thread? Would hate to have *all* notifications go to my phone.

I think this is where I step in and say "bugger off"  (laughing, I kid, I kid)

Honestly, that would be a fun idea but not sure it would work or if the pay off would be worth it for the team to try.  I will let them give you an answer.

I think the ability to go-to text is really just a luxury.  I use an email that goes to my phone so if someone mentions me or messages me I see it in probably the same time I would see a text.

@SteveD (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3710) and @alyssa (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1) would you need to do anything for the text?  Or just we list the domains and people change their email?
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: SteveD on March 26, 2022, 12:01:08 PM
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Is there a way to do this for just a specific thread? Would hate to have *all* notifications go to my phone.
This would not be specific to this forum. It's just changing your forum email so all messages gets sent as SMS instead.

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I think this is where I step in and say "bugger off"  (laughing, I kid, I kid)

Honestly, that would be a fun idea but not sure it would work or if the pay off would be worth it for the team to try.  I will let them give you an answer.

I think the ability to go-to text is really just a luxury.  I use an email that goes to my phone so if someone mentions me or messages me I see it in probably the same time I would see a text.

@SteveD (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3710) and @alyssa (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1) would you need to do anything for the text?  Or just we list the domains and people change their email?
People would just change their email address in their profile. Anything normally sent to their email would be sent to SMS instead.

Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: alyssa on March 26, 2022, 12:26:30 PM
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This would not be specific to this forum. It's just changing your forum email so all messages gets sent as SMS instead.
People would just change their email address in their profile. Anything normally sent to their email would be sent to SMS instead.
It's really cool that the cell companies have enabled the email to sms text feature
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: Michaelnaut on March 26, 2022, 12:30:22 PM
@SteveD (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3710) gave me a further idea on thread-specific notifications.  I've a subscription to Office 365, and I'm testing out a workflow now to do just this.  Will be using this thread as the guinea pig.  I'll share my findings if/when I get it to work.
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: NCDS on March 26, 2022, 12:42:22 PM
Let me know when I should change my email and we can do some testing. 

@Michael M (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2539) for yours would everyone need 365 for you idea.

Really though the way I have the exchange set up its personal messages that people will need to be notified to their phones.  Sneak peek for anyone that comes here.  The exchange uses google sheets for information and then people will be contacting each other through PM's on the forum.
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: Michaelnaut on March 26, 2022, 12:51:19 PM
Agree, but the only reason I'm using O365 is cause Yahoo only allows you to set up forwarding when you pay for their Plus services.  Anyone that has an email service that allows forwarding (I don't know if google/gmail/etc.) with some rules could do this with them as well.  The idea is...
1. Email from FoCC comes in
2. Set up a rule based on the context of the subject (ex. You were tagged!)
3. Forward that email to the cell-email that @SteveD (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3710) showed above


I'm just using my O365 subscription cause Yahoo doesn't do the forward.  Others may have luck w/their stuff. Be an interesting test otherwise.
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: NCDS on March 26, 2022, 12:58:36 PM
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Agree, but the only reason I'm using O365 is cause Yahoo only allows you to set up forwarding when you pay for their Plus services.  Anyone that has an email service that allows forwarding (I don't know if google/gmail/etc.) with some rules could do this with them as well.  The idea is...
1. Email from FoCC comes in
2. Set up a rule based on the context of the subject (ex. You were tagged!)
3. Forward that email to the cell-email that @SteveD (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3710) showed above


I'm just using my O365 subscription cause Yahoo doesn't do the forward.  Others may have luck w/their stuff. Be an interesting test otherwise.

Oh gotcha, I like this alternative.  Gmail has free forwarding.  I will admit I get more emails than text so it might indicate to me that it's more important, that or I will think my phone company is telling me my bill is due.
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: Michaelnaut on March 26, 2022, 01:16:17 PM
Further thinking, I'll see if/how I could get something like this on my gmail account since you said forwarding is free.  It looks like there's a filtering capability too.  I'll post here and then folks can validate and use if they wish to or no.
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: chocolateshake on March 26, 2022, 01:39:35 PM
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Agree, but the only reason I'm using O365 is cause Yahoo only allows you to set up forwarding when you pay for their Plus services.  Anyone that has an email service that allows forwarding (I don't know if google/gmail/etc.) with some rules could do this with them as well.  The idea is...
1. Email from FoCC comes in
2. Set up a rule based on the context of the subject (ex. You were tagged!)
3. Forward that email to the cell-email that @SteveD (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3710) showed above


I'm just using my O365 subscription cause Yahoo doesn't do the forward.  Others may have luck w/their stuff. Be an interesting test otherwise.

You can do this with any email address.  Just have Thunderbird running on a machine somewhere.  Whenever email arrives it can run a filter on it. The filters allow for a variety of actions including forwarding that email to another address.  This is how I've been getting SMS text messages whenever CCI sends an email to me for years.  During comic-con season It's very useful so I can get notified of things like the pre-con shift announcement.
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: Michaelnaut on March 26, 2022, 01:49:03 PM
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You can do this with any email address.  Just have Thunderbird running on a machine somewhere.  Whenever email arrives it can run a filter on it. The filters allow for a variety of actions including forwarding that email to another address.  This is how I've been getting SMS text messages whenever CCI sends an email to me for years.  During comic-con season It's very useful so I can get notified of things like the pre-con shift announcement.
I think to @NCDS (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2339) point, if we can get this working w/o the need for "extra stuff", and using a mail services' capabilities, it's less of a hassle. Folks that want to go the "extra mile" (like Thunderbird or O365) are more than welcome to do so.  But if we can vet this to work with OOTB capabilities, that's a win.
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: chocolateshake on March 26, 2022, 03:20:30 PM
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I think to @NCDS (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2339) point, if we can get this working w/o the need for "extra stuff", and using a mail services' capabilities, it's less of a hassle. Folks that want to go the "extra mile" (like Thunderbird or O365) are more than welcome to do so.  But if we can vet this to work with OOTB capabilities, that's a win.

I get it.  I thought when you said "the only reason I'm using O365 is cause Yahoo only allows you to set up forwarding when you pay for their Plus services", that you meant you were using outlook email because yahoo email does not allow forwarding for free.  Since free outlook email does support forwarding.  But now I know you meant outlook the client and not outlook the email service.

Gmail does have filters that allow for forwarding.  So that will work for this.  The gmail website is just not a portal to gmail the email service, it's basically a full fledged email client.  You can use it as a client for other email services.

I use Thunderbird as my email client anyways.  So for me there's no extra stuff.
Title: Re: Notifications to Text Messaging?
Post by: Michaelnaut on March 26, 2022, 03:42:51 PM
Yup, and it looks like you can use the Subject field to accommodate the filtering you want, to set up individual filters to focus on specific threads.  This way you don't spam your phone w/text messages.
1 - Create the filter, placing in the subject the text of the thread title that you want to monitor for
(https://bnz05pap001files.storage.live.com/y4mxYrtInruphakq8NVe4Mc2mlUBTw7SR5VMmnqCEE0KLY0O9ly802Nn8pVd3DUd5cvZxog5amO01--npzZJJzebNB-M0DFb8Ru5gcUIfd7KiIkFDnOrn_4hkKWmhCgm_8L4UH_m5N-jVH-ndIY5-AxSzyRXAWtFPhC3Z8GUDQHPX9fQK_4lo9QqgD9UbSNN7-H?width=1078&height=536&cropmode=none)
2 - Forward it to your phone via the email address scheme earlier in the thread
(https://bnz05pap001files.storage.live.com/y4mBsoeVs4OS9nW547ywlcBpu46K-HcOYg-BZUYQ_sD2ZpxgnBE9kAc6HHQOde6aLlcZPmpJWJH2nndtAhDhHPJvrAlc3FUBGviEiSpCfOReqvA9vDlsPg3hKHcGQ_CuKvQkDPsjDXlCJ3ViSAZlke1DJSge7IRJ1o4MMokiJpfVlpzzZjNAsEagIeaFENIpml8?width=1078&height=838&cropmode=none)
I'm gonna play a lil more to see if I can clean up the messaging...but it looks like you can use the above to create a filter on the exchange thread using the title of the thread.