Get New Orkut Scrap Alerts, Friend Info And More As ORKUT SMS On Your Mobile Device

Now you can receive alerts about new orkut scraps, New friendship requests and a lot more on your mobile device. No need to have a PC, a mobile handset can help you doing your regular practices on a go.

Recently Orkut launched a new feature and they call it Orkut Mobile. What makes it more interesting is that you need not to have a GPRS enabled handset to use this feature. Just a simple SMS will manage the job. You can check your scraps, get new scrap notifications, view friend's details including their e-mail Ids, send new scraps and a lots more features yet to be added by Orkut.

How to do the Orkut Mobile settings in order to get SMS alerts on mobile phone :

• Go to My Settings --> Mobile page.
• Orkut will show you the list of mobile carriers (Mobile Service Providers) from your country. Don't get shocked, you have already added your country in your profile.
• Now choose your mobile carrier (Mobile Operator).
• Then type your mobile no in the My Mobile Number field. That number will be used by Orkut to send you SMS (Short Service Messages) texts.
• After providing the number, Orkut will ask you to verify the number you just entered by sending a text message to Orkut from that number. Follow the instructions and send the message.
• After getting confirmation, Orkut will associate that mobile number with your profile and will add that number in it's database.
• In future you will get any friendship request or new scrap alerts on that mobile number. Simultaneously you can send scraps to your friends using that mobile number.
  
• All the scraps sent from your mobile number will be posted in your friend's scrapbook under your Orkut profile. Isn't that cool now?
• But remember one thing, this service is not free. Your Mobile service Provider may charge you for receiving and sending text messages.
  

NOTE : All of us know that our mobile operators charge us for sending SMS texts from our mobile, but why should we get charged for any incoming SMS messages that Orkut will send us? Note that Orkut Mobile is a premium service. Currently it's not working with all the mobile service providers. It has been associated with the leading ones only. And the incoming messages that will cost you, will be divided by Orkut and your SMS carrier. So, Orkut is planning to pocket some money by introducing this Orkut mobile feature.

Currently this service is available in Brazil and India. Because more than 50% of Orkut users belong to these two countries. After getting successful experience from these countries, Orkut will expand this feature for the worldwide users.

Check the screenshot of Orkut Mobile page below :


Orkut Mobile : How much would this cost me?

• If you belong to India, you can use this Orkut Mobile feature only with these mobile operators : BPL, MTNL, Aircel, Reliance, Spice and TATA. Other networks are not currently supported.
• For sending text messages, you will be charged Rs.2 per SMS from these operators, except MTNL, which will charge you RS.1 per message.
• Getting notifications from Orkut will be free until you reach your monthly quota. After that limit, you will get charged for incoming messages also.
• In Brazil, Orkut users with the following operators can enjoy this service : Amazonia Celular, Brasil Telecom, Claro, Oi, Temelig celular/Vivo, TIM, Vivo.

SMS Commands you have to use for Orkut Mobile :

• on or off - Turns ON or OFF SMS alerts
  
• reset - Resets your monthly quota limit. Let me explain how it works... suppose you have a limit of getting 50 free alerts on your mobile phone. And if you just reached that limit by 10th of that month, you won't get any new alerts in that month. But if you want to keep that SMS notification activated, you can send a text message, by typing the word reset, and Orkut will add some extra quote to your account for that month. Keep this in mind that the extra quota will be chargeable and that will cost you Rs.2 per incoming message if you are in India.
• unregister - Gets yourself unregistered from Orkut Mobile service and you won't get any future notifications from Orkut.
• scrap - In the field, type your Orkut friend's name and your message in the field, then send the SMS. Orkut will automatically post that scrap in your friend's scrapbook under your profile name.
• contact > - This will enable you to view the contact information (phone number, email, IM, and address) of an orkut friend.

This is a cool feature indeed. This is also pretty easy to use. If you are still having any problems, just write to me in the comment section. I will be glad to assist you.

Orkut talks about SMS prices : Check the price details for your operator.

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