Airtel becomes First to Offer SMS2.0

Techtree News Staff, Dec 31, 2007 1145 hrs IST

With Affle being the inventor of this technology, Airtel claims to be the first in the country to offer this innovative service to its 55 million-odd customers.

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Airtel, along with Affle, a leading mobile media company that currently operates out of India, Singapore, Thailand, UK, and USA, has launched SMS2.0, touted as the world's first upgrade to SMS.

With Affle being the inventor of this technology, Airtel claims to be the first in the country to offer this innovative service to its 55 million-odd customers.

SMS2.0 enables an interactive and non-intrusive platform on mobile phones that would allow Airtel users discover a host of relevant content services with enhanced messaging features.

While riding on the popularity of the familiar SMS application, SMS2.0 is unique in that it converges messaging, content, and contextual advertising into one seamless application that resides as the default SMS application on the customer's mobile handset.

SMS2.0 also serves free content to users, contextual to their areas of interest. The content is served in the form of teasers on the Message Compose/Read window and a Full Screen that appears along with the Message Sent/Sending Window.

Commenting on the launch of SMS 2.0, Sanjay Gupta, chief marketing officer (Mobile Services) of Airtel, said, "Trends indicate that youth and young professionals are more active users of messaging. SMS2.0 represents a huge opportunity for Airtel to differentiate itself, and further gain both mind-share and market-share in these segments."

SMS2.0's message personalization options include additional features like composing and sending messages with a variety of text, background colors, and emoticons.

The content experience is driven around leveraging SMS, and delivering user-relevant content such as news, jokes, movie updates, Cricket, Astrology, etc -- all seamlessly integrated into the messaging experience.

Available as a 'free upgrade' to the regular SMS application, Airtel subscribers can download SMS2.0 by sending "SMS2" to 543210. There are no charges for downloading the new application or for subsequent content delivery on this platform.

USER COMMENTS

by amit, bangalore, on Jul 25, 2009 10:46 AM, Report abuse Reply

i want to instal sms2.0

by shivu, bangalore, on Jun 29, 2009 12:23 PM, Report abuse Reply

i want to install sms2.o

by animesh, chennai, on Nov 02, 2008 03:57 PM, Report abuse Reply

its a nice scheme and quitre helpful for the students speciaslly. i want to take this scheme on my phone but should i take it on a different conncection.

by krishna, india, on Jun 04, 2009 11:39 AM, Report abuse

Will say after use

by Raj k, Nanded, on May 08, 2009 02:14 PM, Report abuse Reply

i m lakhwinder gill

by gill, jaitu, on May 03, 2009 11:38 AM, Report abuse Reply

What is the extra benefit I would get if I opted to use this service? Would the sms will cost the same as normal sms as per my plan or it charges more?

by Tanmoy Bhattach, Asansol, on Apr 20, 2009 12:04 PM, Report abuse Reply

by Nitish, Gopalganj, on Apr 17, 2009 09:04 AM, Report abuse Reply

Before the sun sets in this year, before the memories fade, before the net works get jammed Wish u and ur family Happy Sparkling New Year 2009

by hitesh purohit, vapi, on Jan 01, 2009 09:11 PM, Report abuse Reply

by Ravi chamoli, Rishikesh, on Nov 13, 2008 12:18 PM, Report abuse Reply

hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii i am very happy tht airtel had launch this

by nikunj, mumbai, on Nov 12, 2008 05:20 PM, Report abuse Reply

Airtel ir sms 2 important useful for the all information

by Prabu, Chennai, on Nov 08, 2008 11:08 AM, Report abuse Reply

My handset sony ericson k550i does not support it. Do something.

by Tirtha ghatak, Kolkata, on Nov 04, 2008 06:21 PM, Report abuse Reply

by mohsin, bangalore, on Oct 30, 2008 08:00 AM, Report abuse Reply

good

by ambok assek, johor bahru, on Oct 29, 2008 10:09 AM, Report abuse Reply

hello,

by D.D.patel, Bharuch, on Oct 12, 2008 03:28 PM, Report abuse Reply

I will say after usage

by Prakash.ch, Hyderabad, on Aug 26, 2008 02:47 PM, Report abuse Reply

It is good

by Dev, Ranchi, on Jun 08, 2008 06:37 PM, Report abuse Reply

sent free upgrade

by rajavel, chennai, on Jun 07, 2008 04:00 AM, Report abuse Reply

best than other

by anandh, pondichery, on Apr 26, 2008 12:12 PM, Report abuse Reply

ohw is it possible

by vikram, chennai, on Apr 17, 2008 06:24 PM, Report abuse Reply

Since the day I took this up, sending SMS is so much fun. Its really cool. A must for all

by Ravi Bajaj, Lucknow, on Dec 31, 2007 02:30 PM, Report abuse Reply

Is sending messages free with this? i recently got a call from airtel to upgrade to it. i think only updates will be received free of cost. am i right? someone plz clarify on this

by Chiranjeevi, Bangalore, on Apr 17, 2008 04:33 PM, Report abuse

good

by mmk, jalandhar, on Apr 13, 2008 06:59 AM, Report abuse Reply

best

by farhan siddiqui, bhopal, on Apr 06, 2008 07:31 PM, Report abuse Reply

its not compatible in most mobiles..iam using nokia 6070.. airtel should solve this problem

by shiva, thanjavur, on Apr 01, 2008 02:36 PM, Report abuse Reply

sms2.0 is very good .make a change that the teaser information changes daily

by kiran, hydrabad, on Mar 08, 2008 02:45 PM, Report abuse Reply

I liked it.

by Dhiraj, Ludhiana, on Feb 28, 2008 10:37 PM, Report abuse Reply

First Provide services currently offered in a proper way. To Tell Airtel Management, thousands of chennai subscribers had their CLIP deactivated without any reason on 22 Jan 2008, The response was very bad and one reason from Client Service person where the airtel server not working. Also so many unwanted calls. Damn you bring new technology try to provide basic services properly

by Karkotagan, Chennai, on Jan 23, 2008 02:12 PM, Report abuse Reply

Its nice to know that Airtel is launching this facility in India for the first time but inspite of sending SMS to download it in the formater required I am not getting any response. I think proper measures should be taken to solve these types of problems in advance before launching any service.

by Manjeet, Pune, on Jan 03, 2008 02:30 AM, Report abuse Reply

Your phone has to have symbian software preloaded...most nokia phones have it.... adi

by adi, DELHI, on Jan 08, 2008 05:36 PM, Report abuse

Nice initiative.

by Manjeet, Pune, on Jan 03, 2008 02:26 AM, Report abuse Reply

Fine.. but airtel is the worst service provider in India. The only advantage of airtel is that the network coverage is good but customer service sucks. I am getting charged for a service called MCA(Missed Call Alert facility) from past 5 months, this service is not active on my number and I am tired of calling up customer call. Even I spoke with senior management people as will with techincal department but still the problem is not rectified and the process goes on without fail.

by Riks, Bangalore, on Jan 03, 2008 01:31 AM, Report abuse Reply

Compatibility is the major issue here; its nice to hear that airtel is launching SMS 2.0; as changes in any business is good for the customers as well; where as Airtel must have waited some time as it is not compatible on the OS on the mobile phones customer use

by Srinivas, Hyderabad, on Jan 02, 2008 09:36 PM, Report abuse Reply

USELESS, how can they release something without making it compatible with the latest generation phones at least. Symbian 3rd editiong is not supported and what about windows mobile platform and further java app for phones with an OS. Sure shot flop. Airtel should have waited a bit longer till its rolled to more handsets.

by DJ AJ, Aamchi Mumbai, on Jan 02, 2008 08:25 PM, Report abuse Reply

its not a platform indipendent appl it would be better only in gprs enable handsets...

by shekhar, delhi, on Jan 02, 2008 06:54 PM, Report abuse Reply

At least make clear with fundamental differnces among the two. As a Part SMS2.0 is going to play in negative GPRS Hand set

by saurabh, Lucknow, on Jan 02, 2008 05:30 PM, Report abuse Reply

I receive tons of annoying and unwanted marketing calls/SMSes on my phone every month; no matter how many DO NOT CALL registries exist. And this could rise with SMS 2.0. We all know how much do these companies respect users privacy! Today they read your SMS, and tomorrow they'll listen to your phone calls! There goes user's privacy down the drain! ;-) We need a paradigm shift to respect user's privacy in India. Good privacy laws need to be enforced. Untill then, users are advised to keep themselves safe.

by Manav Kataria, Bangalore, on Jan 02, 2008 05:19 PM, Report abuse Reply

I upgraded to SMS2 in my n72 couple of week ago after getting it from airtel live..well..its cool to send message with color, yahoo like smileys.. You can view jokes,sher ,news of your interest and lots of advertisement (;)) ...The bad i noticed that when it uses my airtel live connection to update the contents my phone slightly slowed down..

by Sohaib, Kolkata, on Jan 02, 2008 05:19 PM, Report abuse Reply

'messaging, content, and contextual advertising' What does it mean? by the way, does it mean SMS is going to be paid for by advertisers? Good if it is so, otherwise I do not find anything to be excited about.

by Thomas K Mathai, Mysore, on Jan 02, 2008 09:36 AM, Report abuse Reply

you will get only if you subscribe.. its actually good... try to understand the business model.

by nahid, bangalore, on Jan 02, 2008 05:15 PM, Report abuse

sms 2.0 is not compatible on samsung mobiles.

by sujith, kochi, on Jan 02, 2008 02:38 PM, Report abuse Reply

It perfectly aligns with Airtel's recent partnership with Google. Now they have a platform that can be used to SPAM users with a lot of advertisements [:)] What an IDEA Sirji!!!

by Deobrat Singh, Hyderabad, on Jan 02, 2008 02:16 PM, Report abuse Reply

I have Nokia 2100 model. Is this SMS2 compatable to my mobile?

by vijay kumar raj, chennai, on Jan 02, 2008 11:35 AM, Report abuse Reply

I donno Y airtel has released this only for few handsets of NOKIA only.....it hurts a longtime airtel customers like me but with a high end Sonyericsson model....... available only for nokia 3230,N70,N72,6260,6680,6681.6682,6630,6670,7610,6620,6600

by Sri, Bangalore, on Jan 02, 2008 01:11 PM, Report abuse

I fear this is a newway to bombard us with intrusive 'pop up' spam advert messages.

by Anonymous, Hyderabad, on Dec 31, 2007 09:51 PM, Report abuse Reply

exactly!!!!! its a good thing its free too... or else imagine having to pay to read adverts!!!

by basuRR, PUNE, on Jan 02, 2008 11:20 AM, Report abuse

its amazing feture in airtel.

by naresh gupta, delhi, on Jan 01, 2008 07:41 PM, Report abuse Reply

Why nokia 5700 is not compatible???

by rizwana, mumbai, on Jan 02, 2008 08:52 AM, Report abuse

hai hello how are u

by anuj, jabalpur, on Jan 01, 2008 07:01 PM, Report abuse Reply

Cannot send the message to the specified number... :(... Does all the Airtel circles provide this???

by Raj Nair, Trivandrum, on Jan 01, 2008 06:51 PM, Report abuse Reply

let me test first

by hariharan, kollam, on Jan 01, 2008 06:17 PM, Report abuse Reply

I have used this service and it really rocks. I send cool messages, and I get so much of free content. Its wow :)

by Pooja, Delhi, on Dec 31, 2007 02:27 PM, Report abuse Reply

Wtf? This chick is an advert frm Airtel, Beware!! SMS2 sux bigtym!! It replaced the default messaging stack of my N72 with its own which was stuffed wid ads frm airtel and indiatimes. Trust me, u r better off without the smiley's n backgrounds cuz they suck too. The only 'free content' u get are 'ADS'!!

by gr8salil, New Delhi, on Jan 01, 2008 12:06 PM, Report abuse

This sounds like a total crap of an app. Airtel would do well to focus instead on improving their network quality instead of boneheaded apps like this.

by Sudhir, Hyderabad, on Jan 01, 2008 11:25 AM, Report abuse Reply

sms 2.0 is not compatible on symbian os 9.1 phones unfortunately

by romysodhi, New Delhi, on Jan 01, 2008 02:03 AM, Report abuse Reply

Strange but the flagship Nokia N95 is not supported

by Anuj Singhal, Jalandhar, on Dec 31, 2007 08:51 PM, Report abuse Reply

this upgrade is only for nokia phones. SonyEric phones are not supported..

by prabhas, pune, on Dec 31, 2007 04:51 PM, Report abuse Reply

I dunno why Airtel was advertising for that Google search thing so much. This is a much better way of getting relevant information on mobile.Way to go Airtel :)

by Satish Gupta, Mumbai, on Dec 31, 2007 03:46 PM, Report abuse Reply

This is a great a great application that can be used along with the new CRM model that AdCalls has developed for small businesses. (www.adcalls.com/overview.html) which allows businesses to give away FREE World Wide Long Distance calling and sends Text and Voice Message Ads from the advertiser

by Al Krauza, Aliso Viejo, CA, on Dec 31, 2007 02:41 PM, Report abuse Reply

This is so much fun... It's great to send colourful messages and also see nice dating tips... I think I will try some of them with my boyfriend!

by Jasminder, Patiala, on Dec 31, 2007 02:38 PM, Report abuse Reply

i think it would be a good technology...

by Nikunj Patel, Nasik, on Dec 31, 2007 02:15 PM, Report abuse Reply