We had a bit of an error this morning whilst testing something that resulted in the site sending lots of email/sms messages to everyone subscribed to my TextStream. Sincere apologies if you were one of the recipients. Preventative measures are being taken to stop it happening again, but enough excuses because it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Archive for the 'Beta' Category
Treasuremytext is down for a few hours whilst we move all our users over to the new system (at last!!) Yes, we’re coming out of invite only beta soon. Yes you can use the new system very soon. If you’ve been a Treasuremytext user for a while you’ll soon notice some pretty big changes around here. If you’ve been using the beta, you’ll also notice some pretty big changes!
While the site is down, SMS services are operating normally and messages will saved normally. iPhone application services at this time may be interrupted or unavailable.
Check back here in a few hours for updates!
We’re currently installing our U.S. service but not being U.S. citizens it makes it a little difficult for us to check compatibility with all the networks. We need a couple of people to test out the four major networks in the U.S. and Canada. The test only requires you to create a Treasuremytext account and to send an SMS to a standard U.S. mobile number so we can verify it is working on that network. We need people on these following networks :
- Verizon
- T-Mobile
- ATT - Thanks Alex
- Bell Mobility
- Sprint
- Rogers
- Fido
- Telus
- Virgin CA
Can you help? If you want to help us beta test this then send us an email to beta(at)treasuremytext(dot)com (replacing commars and ‘at’s where appropriate - you know what we mean)!
We’ll then send you a special invite to sign up with other relevant instructions.
You can now get an invite to the new Treasuremytext beta via Mashable Invites.
“Mashable Invites is a place to swap invites for “Web 2.0″ sites that are currently in private beta mode. Just add your name to an invites list and other Mashable Invites members will drop by and invite you.”
As mashable fans we’re pretty happy about that - and it means we get invites to other cool apps too!
Although it’s the Holiday Season we’ve been working hard on putting the finishing touches to the Treasuremytext iPhone application.
The features are:
- Delete Individual SMS Messages
- Archive Messages to Treasuremytext
- Archive and Delete Messages
So the app will archive messages to Treasuremytext without the need to forward messages by SMS, making using Treasuremytext totally free for iPhone users. Also it solves issues with the iPhones SMS interface - i.e. that you can’t delete single messages, only the whole thread.
Added benefits for use with Treasuremytext:
- Messages appear in TMT with the original date sent
- Messages appear in TMT in the right date order
- TMT figures out the right ‘from’ contact info for you
Still to do:
- Finalise the Authentication Page
- Fix up the new icon (done)
- A little bug fixing
What’s been really cool about this is that by making the application for iPhone we have also made an API. Paul will write more about the choices for API ‘design’ but basically we based ours on Flickr’s as it’s pretty comprehensive and easy for people to use.
What this means is that other developers would be able to create clients for handsets that integrate with Treasuremytext enabling people to do more useful stuff with SMS - via HTTP / over the air synching. More on the Treasuremytext Application for iPhone as it happens.
So now the first tentative round of invites and testing is pretty much done. There haven’t been any major issues but a whole bunch of tiny things that cropped up have been fixed or improved. Getting the small things right is very important and many thanks to everyone who’s helped so far and given us ideas and feedback.
We’ve been fairly cautious in the number of invites we’ve given out but now we need to let a few more people in to really give this thing a proper work out. So to make this easy you can now get an account for the beta without having to wait for an invite, here’s how.
- Don’t Have an Account yet?
What you waiting for! oh an invite, right well no longer. Just click on ‘Create your Account’ from the homepage and then enter the email address beta to skip the invite process. This will get you straight in! During the sign up process feel free to send out a couple more invites to your friends.
- Already a Beta Tester?
If you already have an account we’d like you to try out our invite friends features and send a few to people you know.If you one of our early users you may not have seen it yet but there are now two ways you can invite people. The first is you can use the ‘Invite Friends’ link which has been added next to Profile at the top, this is just a basic email a friend invite.The other way is that we have now built inviting right into contacts themselves, which makes sense. Go to any of your existing contacts and then to edit (or add one if you don’t have any). From here you can see some new sharing settings and from here you can send invites. This feature is nicer than just sending regular invites because when invites are accepted your contact details get traded and you will automatically be added to one an-others favorites. This saves both people the effort of having to manually enter each others contacts.
Oh and one other thing is that you can now also tell which contacts are also your favorites by a heart that appears over a contacts buddy icon. So cute, one of Katies ideas of course.
Look forward to seeing you all in there, don’t forget to check out my Backroom TextStream and sign me up as a favourite already!
The guys over at Wiliam Web Design have created a new version of their RSS Feed Reader that works on Facebook Pages. This is so great we had to try it out right away.
Now our Treasuremytext Facebook Page displays the RSS feed from the main Treasuremytext Text Stream!
Been a bit quiet recently haven’t we? Well perhaps on the blog front but not behind the scenes. We have been working on invites. On the current version of TMT we get a lot of our users telling their friends about the service; of course because they like it! We know they’re gonna love the new TMT even more and we need to make sure we have nice sensible ways for people to tell their friends, and invite them to join.
Because we have lots of ways in which you can connect with contacts Text Stream favorites and so on there are many ways we can do “tell a friend”. Also we’ve learnt from social information architectures of flickr and facebook and we wanted to make sure what we’re doing is useful, informative, but not spammy.
Think we’ve got it right now - and we’ll be unleashing the new invite system soon!
We’re happy to announce the Treasuremytext2.0 Beta is now live at http://beta.treasuremytext.com
It’s still invite only for now - but mail me (katie) for an invite and you’ll be invited. Please check it out and add any comments via our Facebook Group.
I had hoped our Treasuremytext2 beta would be live by now. It is very nearly live and we’re having a ’specially invited guest preview’ (to iron out any alpha bugs) next week, but we do actually have some genuine reasons for the delay. So without sounding too much like we’re not sure about *stuff* I wanted to explain about our change of heart regarding a couple of our more socially oriented ideas.
Being an ‘early dopter’
I’d class myself as an early adopter of web2.0 (blogger, facebook addict, social media strategist etc). I like ‘lifestreaming’ lifecasting, passive publishing, presence and future presence, portable, tight, close and loose networking stuff.
The Treasuremytext Proposition: It’s Personal Storage (and everyone gets it)
Since we’ve been (re)making Treasuremytext as a web2.0 app, when we start describing it “A mobile to web app - save your SMS online” some people have tended, over the last few months to reply “Oh, you mean like twitter, or jaiku“… Well, in so far as you send a SMS message and it ends up on a web page, yes, but in other respects, no. I love those services, and I use them (but I’m a geek / 2.0person / early adopter / social media tart). And I like using such services for that ‘what I’m doing now’ shouting type ’status’ updates.
But…Treasuremytext is about personal storage and “personal storage” is not ‘lifecasting’. The ‘Treasuremytext specific’ need I have is to store things I feel are important. And I don’t want to treasure important stuff on twitter.
So whilst we’d love Treasuremytext to be as popular as twitter, we have to stay focussed on what it is and what it isn’t. We know that our users love the service, and that more people want to keep with mobile stuff. And that whilst social features help in the network effect / marketing / growth we have to stay focussed on doing the core stuff well. We have many thousands of users who just want to keep their SMS safe online. They ‘get’ personal storage, and I’m not sure they ‘get’ lifecasting. Whilst many of them are media ‘literate’ they’re not the web2.0 / geek crowd. They are the millions of people who just love SMS.
So the delays?
So the delay in launch is about that - we’re slightly reworking a few social features - which whilst ensuring our text treasuring fans can publish, republish, promote and ‘connect’ - that we’re not forgetting the well loved, well tested concept of ‘personal storage’. Also, we also recognise that if people want to text chat with friends they should use twitter and if people like me want to lifecast by mobile or via feeds they should use jaiku. We’re just making a few tweaks to ensure we keep personal storage personal.
Personal Content Manifesto
Is “private-personal” making a come back? Some of us like doing everything online and in public, some of us just want to keep stuff. Hey, as long as there’s something out there for everyone, it’s all good.
Treasuremytext2 beta is coming very soon - it’s about treasuring texts; loving your SMS.
Very soon, honest!
Image: Duncan on Flickr.
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