Howzat?! …Game set and match to text messaging apps

So it’s Thursday 2pm, and with my fourth coffee of the day in hand and no lunch as yet, I am feeling slightly edgy when it happens … the faint buzz in my pocket indicating a new text message. Not more work I think, taking another sip of my coffee to ensure caffeine levels are suitably topped up, and pulling my phone out of my pocket to open the message.

But this time it’s not work – it’s Jean-Pierre in London… “lovely day on Centre Court, Federer looking good”. Reading between the lines this translates as “Sorry you’re at work loser, I’m at Wimbledon watching probably the greatest tennis player ever on a beautiful sunny day”. I know that’s what he’s really saying, because I recently sent him a similar text message from the cricket at Newlands, when South Africa was thrashing Australia.

What struck me was the way that eight words received on my mobile phone transported me to a different place and time. For nearly five years I used to live in Wimbledon, approximately 5 minutes from the All England Tennis Club, and it made me think of the excitement around Wimbledon time. The celebrity spotting (I once met Steffi Graf … OK not really; I shopped for bananas next to her in Sainsbury’s, but that’s close enough), the queuing through the night for Centre Court tickets, the (really expensive) strawberries & cream, the pints of Pimms & Lemonade, the sunny, and sometimes very rainy, days. When I wasn’t lucky enough to be at the tennis, we would get together with friends at our local pub for a few pints, or I would sit in our flat and watch on television, and with the windows open I could just about hear the crowds cheering and clapping in the distance.

My wife and I now live in South Africa, so Wimbledon is very much confined to (late night) television – but the “guess where I am?” text message war continues. I got JP back with “I’m watching Lions vs. Boks game, meat is on the braai, another beautiful day here – I see on Sky it’s raining in London”. I’m pretty sure that would have done the trick and have been met by a wry smile and stab of envy similar to what I had felt the week before.

Of course, as with any war, it becomes difficult when you have to fight on more than one front – when one is at The Game it’s customary to let every friend in your address book know. I particularly enjoyed some text message action with my not so humble Aussie mates when the Proteas won the cricket test series in Australia…g’day Toddo!! The point is that they do retaliate, and it becomes a rather difficult exercise, with some very nimble finger work required, to reply and stay at the top of the score board.

But…I now have a secret weapon – Communicator, with the detail of the relevant “opponents” loaded into the address book, pre-defined groups of contacts (e.g. Smug Aussies, Ex-Pat Saffers, Ever Optimistic Pommies) and some templates of messages I often use (e.g. “better luck next time old chap”, “you sucked ‘Maaite’”, “SA rules”, “Whatever…” etc). Through the SMS Gateway my text messages are delivered at the press of a button on my PC keyboard, to friends and family, wherever they are in the world. This means that even when my team loses, I win … now howzat!?

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Tags: Clickatell UK, Communicator, cricket, mobile messaging, SMS, sms gateway, sms gateways, tennis, text message