SMS as a Backup to IM

Suggestion for Ovi Contacts

27-04-2009 17:40

While I like this service a lot, it would be great if it took advantage of SMS as a backend for when one is not online, or their contacts are not online. Here are two examples of what I mean:

Example #1
Person has Ovi Contacts on their device, and they want to message someone but that person is offline. The Ovi Contacts service then sends that message to the noted mobile # of that contact.

Example #2
Person has Ovi Contacts on their device, but they are not online. Someone messages them from Ovi Contacts (or compatible XMPP IM application) and then they want to resume the conversation within Ovi Contacts. They open that contact's first message, and then choose "Continue in Ovi" instead of a simple SMS reply.

I think that this would make the service a good bit more seemless, and also facilitate the dicussion between the Conversations and Ovi Contacts team towards how to best implement threaded SMS messaging. Being that I am suggesting that IM and SMS would both be handled under the same banner, this would seem to knock out two birds with one smoothly executed stone :)

AntoineRJWright.com | MobileMinistryMagazine.com

Comments

Submitted by Rich_Enduro on 27-04-2009 19:00.

this could work the other way round too. if you open a sms/mms message and select a friend that has ovi contacts connected, the phone then prompts you to send via ovi instead of via the message center? (although that option would guarantee the UK networks demanding the app removed if it was ever included in any future handsets as a standard feature!!)
or is that what you meant?

N95-1 V31.0.017
UK O2

Submitted by ARJWright on 05-05-2009 16:05.

The ideal situation would be that if a person is connected and has Ovi Contacts, that all IM/SMS messaging would default to IM, and when that's not available it would use SMS. The act of communicating should be transparent to the end user, all we should do is choose the person and then hit "send a message" - whether its IM or SMS should be handled on the network side.

AntoineRJWright.com | MobileMinistryMagazine.com

Submitted by kristian on 10-05-2009 12:20.

I like this feature proposal a lot. It would certainly make it simple for the user to communicate.

-Kristian