blog.wakerupper.com a weblog about Wakerupper

Twitter Hack

Update:  Sorry folks, but we had to disable the Wakerupper Twitter hack. 

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Twitter users may now ‘follow’ Wakerupper on Twitter and schedule telephone reminders via direct message. Among other things, this enables users to schedule Wakerupper telephone reminders via Twitter’s SMS gateway - so you no longer have to be in front of your computer to schedule a call. All you need is your phone and a Twitter account.

Objective

Schedule Wakerupper telephone reminders via Twitter.

Requirements

1. Wakerupper account
2. Twitter account
3. Mobile phone configured with your Twitter account (optional, but highly recommended)

First, in Wakerupper…

1. Log in to your Wakerupper account and go to Wakerupper > Settings. (If you don’t have a Wakerupper account, write to beta@wakerupper.com).
2. In the ‘Twitter name’field, enter your Twitter username.
3. Save your changes. You’re done here.

Then, in Twitter…

Assuming you’

re logged in to your Twitter account, send the command

follow wakerupper

In a minute or so you will notice that Wakerupper has started following you as well. Woohoo!

OK, this is where things start to get fun. Send a direct message to Wakerupper along with the time you want to get a call and whatever you want your reminder to say. For example, you might send:

d wakerupper 7 hours from now wake up for flight

or

d wakerupper wednesday 3pm conf call

Wakerupper receives your Twitter direct message, parses the date and time from your instruction, and schedules your reminder. Once this is complete, you will receive a confirmation Tweet, like so:

6467367842 will be called on Mar 24 at 06:15 PM. To cancel, reply with ‘d wakerupper cancel xku78s’

If you would like to cancel a telephone reminder, you may do so via Twitter by following the instructions provided in your confirmation Tweet. You may also edit or cancel a reminder scheduled via Twitter on your Wakerupper upcoming calls page.

All telephone reminders scheduled via Twitter are placed to the telephone number designated as your default telephone in your Wakerupper account. Likewise, telephone reminders scheduled via Twitter observe the default timezone specified in your Wakerupper settings. Wakerupper currently does not support scheduling recurring calls via Twitter.

What about text messages?

For those of you new to Twitter…

Once you’ve added your phone to your Twitter account, you can send a text message to the Twitter short code assigned to you (40404 in the U.S. and 21212 in Canada) and Twitter sends the message on. So, now anytime you want a Wakerupper telephone reminder and you’

re not in front of your computer, just text the following to short code 40404 (or 21212 in Canada):

d wakerupper 1 hour from now get laundry out of dryer

and your telephone reminder will be scheduled!

Note: The Wakerupper Twitter hack is experimental software and should be considered far less stable than other methods of scheduling Wakerupper telephone reminders.

I just say this and think it is an amazing idea and I would love to sign up now but unfortunatly I am on a blackberry and not able to complete setup because of the captcha. I guess I will have have to set up at a later time. Wonderful idea though and I look forward to using the service.