[Beta Test] Here Is How You Can Receive Free SMS Alerts Of DansDeals Posts!

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Tell your friends to go to www.dansdeals.com/sms to signup for SMS alerts!


Last Thursday, Twitter turned off SMS notifications without warning. Thousands of DansDeals readers received SMS alerts, so I’ve been looking for options since then.

It’s tricky because the cost of sending out hundreds of messages a month to tens of thousands of readers is astronomical. Free services aren’t tailored to send out millions of monthly messages.

For people with smartphones, there are several good options for push notifications, including Telegram, Twitter, and browser push notifications. The Telegram notifications have been working great, so if you can get the Telegram app, I’d recommend that as the best method of receiving alerts. You can follow these directions to set up Telegram alerts. WhatsApp hasn’t worked for us due to the size of our following and their size limitations.

However for the thousands of DansDeals followers who don’t have a smartphone, but still want to get deal updates, I’ve been looking for solutions.

DansDeals commenter Lcm suggested using Groupme, Twitter, and IFTTT to get SMS alerts to your phone. But setting up that process was laborious and there were long delays to get notifications.

DDF member BAHayman worked his usual magic to simplify the process to just 4 easy steps that will just take a minute to setup and should work without delays. You will need internet access to setup a GroupMe account to start getting SMS alerts, but you won’t need to use it again after you set it up and you won’t need to download any apps.

For now, we’re in beta mode as we work out minor issues based on feedback. Please follow the steps below and give us your feedback on how it works for you!

Step 1: Signup for a GroupMe account with your email address and then enter the cell phone number on which you want to receive deal alerts.

(Note: If you already have a GroupMe account or have the GroupMe app, ensure from the settings menu that “receive messages via SMS” is enabled and then skip to step 3.)

 

 

Step 2: Verify your number with GroupMe via a PIN and click start chatting. You can click “text me the pin” if you don’t receive it:

 

Step 3: Click here to enable SMS notifications of new DansDeals posts.

You’ll have to login to your newly created GroupMe account and verify the PIN they will send to your cell phone.

 

Step 4: Click the allow button to finish enabling DansDeals SMS notifications to your phone:

 

You will then be forwarded back to DansDeals with a confirmation that SMS notifications have been set up successfully.

There is no need to download the GroupMe app.

That’s it, you should now get SMS alerts of all DansDeals posts! Share this post with your friends!

HT: lcm

Leave a Reply

121 Comments On "[Beta Test] Here Is How You Can Receive Free SMS Alerts Of DansDeals Posts!"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

Ed Travel

Great, I miss those SMS’s!

Lisa Ferdman

Telegram is working perfectly every time–strongly recommend.

Ketzi

I downloaded the telegram app on my iPhone now how do I get it attached to dans deals? Could you let me know?

Cuz

In telegram search bar, search @DansDeals

Ketzi

Thanks, I hope it works

Ketzi

Thanks it’s working!

Myi

Set up done, let’s see what happens! Thanks Dan and BAHayman!

@BAHayman Can we get the setup to enable for any Twitter group to want to follow via SMS without a delay?

dave

can we use this for other sms blogs?

Daniel

thank you Dan!

jack6941

Signed up. Will report any issues.

Thank you Dan.

Chaim

@Dan, I use GroupMe for other chats. If I click allow to “let DansDeals Notifications access your groups and messages” does that mean someone now can read messages in other chats I use? This would be a privacy concern.

shulem92

groupme gets very temperamental. sometimes messages can get delayed up to 12 hours…

Mikes@Micro.com

Thanks. I have a different number for my groupme account so added my primary number to the group together with the bot

Siggy

I signed up with Telegram, how do I arrange to get Dans Deals on it?

Moe

Will this work with a Google Voice number? (Twitter did work with GV.) GV is not 100% compatible with every SMS service, but it’s works with about 95% of services.

DoB

Twitter worked with GV.

Moe

My child’s school bus uses GroupMe to send bus stop info daily. Should/could I use the same GroupMe account I use with the school? Or will doing so be less than ideal?

Can I use a second GroupMe account using the same SMS phone number as an existing GroupMe account?

bigissy

thanks Dan. glad I can drop twitter

Moe

Are the SMS notifications through this method as quick as Twitter SMS used to be?

bigissy

twitter seems faster.

BrooklynDan

Finally, I’ll be able to get some toilet paper and hand sanitizer in the house!
It’s been a tough go.

Mickey

Was on the twitter app for a few days and was disappointed. Today I checked back on Dansdeals main site which recommended Telegram. Telegram is great, works like WhatsApp flawless !
Thank you for your good work !

Dan fan

Signed up!
Thank you Dan & team!

Lcm

Thanks for the shout out Dan .
Happy someone was able to simplify the process!
Also on DDF as lcm 🙂

Jeff

Sorry, an unknown error occurred. Please try again or contact support@groupme.com

Anyone else get this error when entering PIN number?

I verified the pin was correct and still got this error.

Anyone else duplicated this?

Aryeh

Groupme is so much better than Twitter SMS. I really appreciate you guys pivoting so well! Shkoyach!

Rich Cooper

It seems like there’s a slight delay from Twitter to Group Me. Won’t this be a problem with time sensitive “deals?”

Yo, Dan:

You should look into remind.com as a backup option in the future (if GroupMe kills SMS).
Their paid plan allows up to 100 groups with up to 5,000 people each

Chinagel

Thanks. For those without a smartphone this is great!

jojo

Nice! thanks!!

Hvaces42

Twitter push has been deqd for me for a few days too.

Effie

Using a service like Twilio is understandably expensive but is simpler to setup and more reliable. Perhaps the cost of this service can be recouped by creating sponsored ads that target this subset of Dansdeals users that do not have a smartphone. I’d imagine that there are advertisers that would like reach this group of people. Alternatively,you could have the cost of the SMSs paid for by the subscribers. I think that many of these people would be willing to pay $1 a month to get these SMSs.

Ari

Thanks!

David

In Telegram anyway not to get notified on every post just the major ones?

JackBlue

I like this better then twitter, because I get a picture of the deal as well!

Robert

Do we know which countries still get sms. Maybe can switch my location to that country. (I don’t care for my country’s custom experience)

Robert

Another sms work around https://zapier.com/blog/twitter-sms-notifications-tweets/
I haven’t tried it yet

jack

where do I find the dansdeals groupme chat to click allow? please clarify in top of post (especially for dumb-phone users like me:)

A

I have this for my family group I didn’t think it was an option for you bc we can all respond on it together but I guess you figured out how to get a broadcast type group going

Ayid

Dan, as I (& many others) don’t have texting, is there a way to get the deals to my email inbox?

Tzvi

you can sign up for a google voice number and have all texts forwarded to your email

Yitz

I am in a different GroupMe chat and I constantly have issues with SMS. It randomly will stop sending SMS or it will send them out of order.

And the “don’t send SMS while GroupMe is open in browser” option is moody as well.

Eli

USA text only or international as well ?

Lcm

A couple of points.
It seems that above steps will work only if you are not logged into GroupMe in your browser. If you are, incognito will do the trick.
Also, it may be helpful to add how to disconnect and stop the service if needed.

Joe

Go with telegram, it works instantly as apposed to Twitter which doesn’t always notify right away. Thanks Dan

Abraham

Cool!

Ron

It worked for me. I hate twitter, so a great solution for now.

EER

DansDeals SMS notifications set up successfully!
Thank you Dan! I can now once again follow you. Only problem is it won’t show on Twitter that you have that many followers 🙁

EER

Works magic! Just got my first SMS with no delay. Thank you so much!

DN

Thank you. Works perfectly.

Eli

Does group me only support USA numbers or international as well ?

yup

works with international

hs

Thank you

henry

do i need mms to receive these alerts?

Yitz

No

Tech support

I use telegram for alerts.
When I click on a link for a new deal within a few minutes of when it posts I usually get directed to the 404 page.
Does this happen by everyone? Does this happen with sms?
(It doesnt bother me too much. I just go to the main page and the link from there works.)

EER

Same with me, takes a few minutes till the link works, so I just go to the main page.

Reuven

Great, will now have Telegram and GroupMe and test to see if one is received before another over the next week or so.

zalman

i feel we dumb phones using group me got the gerber deal tonight 18 minutes after others. i have to figure out a way to finagel twitter on my account unless i would lose out on all the deals would opening a new twitter account with a new country work

Franklin

Dan, is there any way to activate the alerts if I am already using GroupMe on SMS for group chats?

Rishonim

I signed up as per Dan Dan instructions & received confirmation but no texts

BrooklynDan

I’ve got a 15 – 30 minute delay in receiving Telegram alert from time of Twitter timestamp. That’s every alert since I joined Telegram yesterday

Chaim

I signed up with GroupMe a half hour ago.
The Ray-Ban deal came 2 minutes later on GM than on Twitter.

Chaim

Update.
Last few deals were same time as Twitter.

Rishonim

Dan, group me working like a charm!

Eric

Really helpful post. Is there any documentation or source code for this? I’ve been trying to create something similar for a subreddit since twitter disabled SMS, but without much luck.

Myi

Would love to know the same.

Ij

My google voice number isn’t working to set up groupme. Says unknown error occurred. Didn’t have that issue with my regular number, but I don’t want to use my regular number.

P

I signed up for GroupMe and linked a phone number but not getting connected to dansdeals? Can anyone help?

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