Don’t want to receive your text reminders on weekends? No problem!

In effort to add more flexiblity to the site, we’ve added the option of only receiving your text reminders on weekdays.

If you’ve already created a reminder, and would like to change it to no longer arrive on weekends, just log in, edit your reminder, and select the “no weekend” option.

Enjoy!

New Feature Roadmap

I’ve received some reqeusts from members to create text reminders that are only active during weekdays. I think that’s a great idea, so I’m going to work on that functionality this weekend.

I’ve re-created the “events” section, and I think it looks and works much better. I’ll also be adding a feature where event creators can message everyone they’ve invited to the event. Additionally I hope to create a reminder feature where event creators can schedule reminders to event attendees that automatically go out.

The “groups” area is off-line for the moment as I redesign it. When it comes back, things should look and work much better.

I just revamped the “manage contacts” area. I’m also planning on adding a new feature that’ll allow members to send their phone a test message from the site - incase they’re having trouble recieving their reminders.

Verizon Users - Outage fixed: Requires re-activation

For the past few weeks, Verizon users have not been able to receive text messages from the site. We’re not exactly sure why this is, but we think it has something to do with the number of text messages the site is sending out.

Since the problem lies with the carrier itself, there isn’t much we can do to fix this. Our only option was to go around Verizon. So we decided to use a text message delivery service called Zeep Mobile. It’s a free delivery service that delivers our reminders in exchange for including a short ad at the end of the message.

Now we at textReminders have tried to remain completely ad-free since we began, but in order to keep Verizon as a carrier, it looks like the only route is to include an ad in each message.

As a current textReminders user, who happens to have Verizon as a carrier, you may be wondering, “Is there anything else I need to do to start receiving my reminders again”? The answer is, “yes, in order to start receiving your reminders again, you’ll need to re-activate your account”.

Since we’re using Zeep Mobile to send the messages, you’ll need to give them permission to deliver your reminders. This is done by logging in your textReminders account, clicking the “Activate Now” button in your members area and adding your phone number to the activation center. You’ll get a message from Zeep Mobile asking you to confirm you number, and after replying, “yes”, you’ll be all set.

We’re thankful to have this solution, and we hope everyone is alright with this change.

New Design!

textReminders underwent a massive redesign last week. Moving towards a clean and bright look and feel, we managed to give the entire site, minus the blog, and entire overhaul.

While the new look hopefully makes things a little more organized, there’s a new drop-down style navigation system, which allows users to jump directly to deeper pages within the site.

There’s also been a bit of a change in direction, as the site is beginning to shift away from the social networking functionality in favor of focusing on the tools that make textReminders so useful.

There are still a few broken links, and missing images, but for the most part everything should be stable. Let me know if you find something that breaks in your browser.

1k members for textReminders!

3 days ago textReminders reached it’s 1,000th member! woohoo!!

Thanks to everyone for using the service, I’m hoping that we’ll reach our 2,000th member in half the time.

I’m currently working on a redesign of the web site. It’ll be a much cleaner, professional look that should be done in a week or two.

Some members have cited a problem receiving their verification text message. If you’re having trouble getting your confirmation code, please leave a comment below or get in touch with me through our contact form. I can’t recreate the error on my side, so I’m looking for users to help me identify the problem.

Thanks everyone!

New Groups Functionality

groups-new-features

I’ve added several new features to the groups section of the site, which I’ll get into shortly. To start out, I’ll just run through all the features from left to right as depicted in the image.

• Add additional members
• Send all members a text message (new)
• Remove members (new)
• Setup textReminders for members (new, but not fully working yet)
• Edit group information (new)
• Delete group

As you can see, groups were badly lacking some necessary functionality. haha. Tomorrow I’ll be setting up the “group reminders” feature, as well as reworking look and feel of the groups pages. If I have time I’ll add some functionality for group members who are not the creator.

Feedback appreciated.

you’ve got mail

So I quickly redid the mail area on the site. It’s been a while since I addressed it, and after sending a few messages back and forth with a friend I realized I had enough of the crappy layout. So it’s more gmail like now. As with everything, it’s just a basic makeover, nothing jaw-dropping yet. More to come here.

In other news…
I’ve added first and last names under friends pics in the right nav and several other areas. I also made a few other minor tweaks.

I’d actually like to spend some time on the groups, but I’m having a hard time laying out what I want to create, and as you know, without a good blueprint it’s just a waste of time. I’ll soon finish up the “mail” area, then address a few other problem areas on the site. Feedback is appreciated.

Dysfunctional Groups

So it seems that I made a mistake to release the groups feature without proper QA, then I went on a 2 week break from the site. Sooooo, I’m afriad to say that members may have gotten a less then ideal experience with the groups. That’s the bad news…

The good news is that I fixed everything, so it should be working well now. Trust me, everything on the site will get a brand new look with new functionality as time permits, but I first want to make sure that the basics of each area of the site work well at very least.

New Spam Filters

In an effort to combat site abuse, I’ve begun implementing spam filters on the site. From now on all text messages sent from the site will be run through an automatic spam filter. Flagged messages will not be sent until an admin can approve the message.

This should help prevent any future spammers from sending unsolicited texts through the site, and will also prevent wireless carriers from blocking legitimate messages.

This change shouldn’t affect normal users.

Number 1 for [text reminders]

Being an SEO Specialist, I pay close attention to how textReminders.net shows up in the search engine rankings.

Today was a good day for me, as textReminders.net finally took the #1 spot in Google for the term [text reminders].

Now [text reminders] isn’t the most searched term on the Internet, but the traffic it does bring is highly qualified - meaning people who are search for [text reminders] are most likely looking for a site like ours, and subsequently are likely to join our little community here. It also means that Google finds us to be an authority on the topic of text reminders, which is cool in and of itself.

So thanks to Google for moving us to the top, and thanks to our members for making this site a fun little spot on the web.