AOL.in has launched a Message to Mobile facility for its users.

AOL users can now send free Instant messages and SMSes to Indian mobile phones through their desktop AOL Mail or AOL Messenger (AIM) service. This feature also enables the recipient mobile user to respond to those messages instantly. 

How to use the AOL free Instant messaging and SMS service

-   Register for an AOL.in Email account at www.aol.in

-   Logon to AOL Mail (or download the AOL Messenger)

-   Add a “buddy” with an India mobile number and send an SMS instantly.

-   Service is supported on most Indian carriers like Airtel, Vodafone, Spice, Aircel and MTNL

AOL’s suite of communications products, including free e-mail with industry leading spam protection, instant messaging, the industry leading Winamp Media Player and video search engine Truveo have all established AOL as a leader in the internet space.

AOL was the first internet portal to start Instant Messenger services through their AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) in the world. Today AOL Messenger is the one of the world’s most popular instant messenger services with over 67 million worldwide users and roughly 2 billion messages sent each day.

AOL’s Mobile offerings too, have been breaking new ground with innovations in Value Added Services. AOL Mobile has unique applications on SMS (51515 & 51516), GPRS (wap.aol.in) and mobile clients.

AOL also announced recently the AOL Open Mobile Platform, which it plans to make available to developers this summer. The new open platform will help stimulate innovation by providing developers with ready access to the tools and source code they need to build and distribute applications across all major mobile device platforms and operating systems including BREW, Java, Linux, RIM, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. As a result, developers will be able to create applications for a wide variety of mobile devices.

The VAS services are:

• Personalized: In fact some of the personalized services, like the ones that tell you about your personality or your partner compatibility- can be amazingly accurate. This is primarily due to the fact that they work with professional astrologers, numerologists etc. to get the results.  
• Customized: They also customize the content for all age groups. So while for youngsters there are tests that match their personality to a Bollywood film star, the ‘Indian Idol’ service, where you get to match your personality to a freedom fighter, may appeal to an older age group. 
• Topical: AOL creates and promotes content depending on seasons or festivals. The Valentine’s Day services saw unprecedented downloads of relevant content  
• Exhaustive: Their services even let customers gain knowledge about different time zones across the world. All you have to do is key in ‘Time (space) City’ and send it to 51515 and AOL Mobile will give you the time zones in up to 100 cities across the world. One can also compare future or earlier time between two different cities in different zones – this is immensely helpful for corporate and the ITES industry who have off shore businesses and need to be accurate with time conversion. This is a service that is unparalleled! 
• Relevant: AOL Mobile also sends you menus with instructions in case you have sent an incorrect message in order to ensure you do not spend money repeating your mistakes!  

“The mobile market in India has outpaced the internet market in terms of growth rate. We feel that our suite of services will help bridge the divide between the growing mobile market (> 200 Million) and the internet market (40 Million) in India”, says PG Ponnapa, VP and GM, India Portal.

Sourced From: Madison Public Relations