Gmail gets SMS feature in chat

Gmail Labs has been on a roll adding innovative and interesting features such as its Mail Goggles feature that curbs late-night, inebriated email use. Now you can also turn on a special feature and send SMS messages to friends right from Gmail’s built-in chat window.

You can find new Gmail Labs features by logging into Gmail and clicking on the settings page. There you will find other features such as the Calendar and Docs Gadgets that we covered earlier. Other features can help to more easily manage your Inbox or create shortcuts links and gestures.

If the feature doesn’t appear as an option in your Gmail settings quite yet, keep checking back. Gmail Product Manager Keith Coleman told Webmonkey that the feature should be available for all users on Friday. My account doesn’t seem to be up and running quite yet, but it’s still early morning on the East Coast.

Once you turn on the SMS chat feature, you’re ready to start texting friends. Just enter a telephone number into the search box at the top of the chat widget. You should see the option to send an SMS message. A friendly note reminds you that it’s possible for your friend to be charged for each text that you send.

The SMS feature is also integrated with your Google Contacts in Gmail as well. When you open a contact record, you should see the option to send them an SMS message if you’ve entered their mobile number.

When you text friends, the message will appear as a telephone number with a 406 area code. That telephone number is then associated with your account so that people can send you messages any time without you having to text them first.

Google joins other major instant messaging providers such as AIM, Yahoo, and MSN Messenger in enabling an SMS gateway for its users. Google innovated in the IM space by being the first to introduce chat into its webmail client.

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