New Look for textReminders coming soon

Look out for a brand new look and feel coming to textReminders in the next few days. The site is undergoing a massive redesign, and results will be impressive.

Find Your Friends on textReminders - v. 1.0.1

textReminders members now have the ability to search for other friends on textReminders through their webmail. Members can find the new functionality using the left hand navigation by selecting “Contacts” then select “Add Friends” from the drop down box.  They’ll be presented with a Gmail Login box. By imputing their username and password (which will never be stored or saved in any way on our systems) they can see if any of their gmail contacts are already on the site. If they are, you can easily friend them. If their not, then there’s an option to share textReminders with them.

Currently the new, “Find a Friend” feature is only available through Gmail. More webmail carriers will be added soon.

Members are encouraged to leave feedback here.

New Search Functionaliy Ala Google

Today we upgraded our internal search engine to Google’s Custom Search. Previously textReminders had been using a script that needed manual update, and the results just weren’t that good. Google takes care of it all with results that fit seemlessly into the site without heavy ads. Thanks G!

Revamped Groups

So before the redesign was released we had a feature on the site called, “Groups”. Basically it was a forum where people could invite a group of friends to share thoughts around a particular topic.

Since the redesign, the groups feature had been hidden, as I didn’t have time to overhaul the entire area.

Now that I’ve had a little bit of time to work on things, I’ve ended up re-tooling the entire groups section. The basic functionality hasn’t changed, but the execution of it has. Now it’s easier than ever to invite friends, create discussions and follow the conversation.

While still not, “finished” (nothing on the site ever is) it’s a fun way of interacting with friends, or meeting people with similar interests.

Go ahead, start a group and share your thoughts!

1200 Members!

textReminders membership has been climbing at a steady rate these past few months, and I’m proud to see that over 1200 members have joined and are using the site.

From the onset, the goal was to provide people with an easy to use, free text reminders service. What seperates us from the rest is the sleek design, advanced features and ease of use.

In a few months here we’ll be coming up on textReminders 1 year anniversery. Can’t wait to celebrate!

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.

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.