We’ve just updated your account settings, here’s the scoop. In response to user requests, and our own desire to give you options whenever possible, the Sent Via Zipwhip tag that sits at the bottom of your sent messages is now optional. Follow the steps and it will no longer be present when you send a message through our system. For those of you who reached out to us in support of this feature, thank you!
1.) From our web app, click on the Zipwhip logo in the upper right hand corner of the screen and click on settings.
2.) Click on the messages tab and click on the bottom option, “Do not include ‘Sent Via Zipwhip’ in my messages.”
That’s it! Two quick steps and you’re done. Let us know if there are other options you’d like to see. You can leave comments below, on facebook or on twitter. Thanks for your support.
Zipwhip’s cloud texting lets you send & receive text messages from your computer using your main mobile number. Cloud texting. Pure and simple.
We’re happy to announce that our Linux desktop app is ready for download! This project was a full-on team effort complete with all the difficulties of a Linux build, so the launch comes with an especially big sigh of relief. As I mentioned in the video, Zipwhip is a Linux-based platform and there was no chance of us not supporting our beloved desktop app for the Linux OS. Saying that, we’re waiting with open arms for all your feedback and hope that together we can make this app even more powerful in the coming months. For now, please go to the Zipwhip homepage to download the app. Thanks for your support.
We’ve been busy improving our desktop app since the last time we featured it here on our blog. You’ll see what we mean in this video. With some new features rolled out sending and receiving text messages with our app will be an even better experience.
The first thing you’ll see is an example of our read-sync technology. We strive to make sure that our apps make texting across devices as seamless as possible, and that’s why we focused a lot of energy on getting this feature right. It works like this; when you mark a message as read on your desktop, that message is also marked as read on your phone. It’s a simple yet critical feature that we know you expect as a consumer. It will help you keep better track of the status of your messages and improve your overall experience.
By far the coolest function of the app is the MMS feature. I can’t tell you how great it is to see a picture message come in on your screen as you’re pecking away on your keyboard. It’s one of the features that is separating us from the pack. Over the next few months we’re going to continue optimizing this feature to make it even more useful so stay tuned. With our hot-key functions (control+enter to send a message) and Windows key+Z (bring up a new message window) you’ll be even more efficient. Especially considering that when you enter a name/number into the “send-to” box our software automatically starts narrowing your field of contacts.
If you don’t have time to respond to a message right away our sticky-note function will come in handy. All you do is left click on the message and drag it to a different part of your screen. There it will sit until you have time to reply. I like to move mine to the very edge of the screen where I can barely read it. Then when I have a second I just drag it entirely back onto my screen and in-line reply. Done.
One last note. If you need to access our app for some reason just look down into the system tray of your computer. You’ll see our logo there. You can right click on it to exit the app, get to our web-app, etc. As always, if you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact us at support@zipwhip.com. Cheers!
The following guest post is courtesy of Rebecca Lovell, Chief Business Officer at GeekWire.
Last week GeekWire hosted the biggest, geekiest, sportiest summer bash you can imagine. We packed over 500 techies into the Showbox SODO, and featured three tournaments (intermediate ping pong, expert ping pong, and foosball) as well as pick-up games of GeekBall and Beer Pong (not to mention a golden ping pong scavenger hunt). Sound like a lot of cats to herd? You better believe it. That’s why we were thrilled to partner with Zipwhip on their Android-based texting technology to help us in tournament-wrangling.
Ahead of the big day, we gathered the mobile phone numbers of our ping pong players so we could easily communicate with them. Going into the event, our assumption was that this would be a back-stop…a last resort if our players didn’t hear announcements over the PA, or we couldn’t spot them with their glow-in-the-dark necklaces, or if our carrier pigeon never returned to home base. What we learned at the event itself was that the super-easy Zipwhip interface enabled us to communicate quickly and personally with each of our players. As our tournament manager announced the upcoming games, our newest geek on the GeekWire team (Emily Shahan) sent out messages to each player wishing him/her luck and announcing their game times-right from her laptop. One of our intermediate players, Teddy Choi of Zillow, even credited his first win to Emily’s encouraging text!
We were delighted to use the Zipwhip platform to serve as such a quick-and-easy extension of customer service at our event. We can’t wait to see what the Zipwhip team cooks up next (group texting on the consumer to consumer product? hope so!).
The Zipwhip Android tablet app has been published and is ready for download! Just go to our homepage and click on the tab (pictured below) after you sign in/register. The app is also available for download by just searching for Zipwhip in the Google Play store from your tablet. In this video Zipwhip’s John Larson takes you through the workings of the tablet application. You’ll quickly notice that this app UI is consistent with our web application and is very straight forward.
In just a few minutes you’ll be sending and receiving text messages from your main mobile number via your Android tablet. One especially convenient feature is that you’ll be notified that you have a new text message even when you’re not active in the app. That notification appears in the system tray of the tablet and is highlighted in our video. We hope you enjoy this short tutorial. Please share it with your friends. This app is a must have for anybody who uses their tablet throughout the day like we do.
Click on this button during registration to install the app.
This infographic blew our minds. It came to us via Sylvia Simon, who works for Onlinecollegecourses.com. She figured we’d be thrilled to see some of these numbers. She was right. In addition to reporting that most Americans send/receive between 1-10 texts a day it shows that 90% of 18-29 year old Americans have a cell phone, with 72% of adults in the United States actively sending and receiving text messages. That’s some serious messaging. What’s more is the fact that some studies are showing that text messaging can literally help improve people’s lives.
One study reported that text message reminders helped participants improve sunscreen adherence. Another found that a text intervention led to a reduction in alcohol consumption. Good stuff. Regardless of the size/scope and methodology of these studies there are some benefits of texting that can’t be debated. It’s relatively cheap. It’s ubiquitous with cell phones. It’ green. So while we continue to fight the ridiculously dangerous habit of texting while driving let’s also celebrate the positive changes that can be made possible through texting.
Have you incorporated text messaging into your life as a way to change a habit? If so we want to hear about it. Sounds off in the comments.
We’ve had a lot of fun with Textspresso this past month. Almost overnight it became part of our company culture and helped us show off our software applications to thousands of people. It’s been featured in 50+ online articles and our video on YouTube has been viewed over 21,000 times. However, what really made us feel like we’d entered into the realm of tech pop culture was when we saw this comic strip made by The Linux Foundation. In addition to being really funny it accurately depicts daily interactions here at the office. When we’re not working we’re texting. When we’re not texting we’re drinking coffee. We’re addicted to both. We’re going through about 5 pounds of beans a week! But jittery? We’re not jittery! Who said that?
We’re now back to the business of bringing our apps to the masses. We’re involved in some really fun projects this summer that we’ll be telling you about soon. In the meantime tell us what you think about the comic and the Linux operating system in the comments. It’s time for some more coffee.
Textspresso. It’s a beautiful thing. In order to combine our cloud texting service with Seattle’s technology and coffee cultures, we created a machine that sends and receives text messages while simultaneously making a coffee. You heard right. We’ve got a robotic barista in the house. Did we mention there’s also a warming plate to keep your coffee warm? Once that feature was completed we decided to take things to the next level. We added an edible ink jet printer that provided a truly over the top touch. The build was completed with lots of head-scratching and weekend work. It was worth it. We’re having trouble keeping beans on hand and our engineers are working through the night.
We are not in the business of making these machines commercially. This is the only machine of its kind and it’ll be living right here in our Seattle headquarters. We created it to show off the power of our cloud texting technology. Simply put, our service allows you to send and receive text messages from your computer using your main mobile number. It’s very simple…building Textspresso was not.
If you have an Android powered smartphone you can go to zipwhip.com now to download our apps and start utilizing our technology. As for the Textspresso, if you’re interested in making one of your own we’ll be open sourcing all of the code and build plans in the near future. Just be sure to send us some video of your creation! Until then you’ll have to stick with those over-priced Americanos from Starbucks.
We just made human baristas old school.
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We had a lot of fun last Wednesday when Kat, Gayle, and Allison from Seattle Coffee Gear stopped by the Zipwhip office. They came over to shoot some video of our Textspresso machine in action for their blog. By using a one shot video technique we had plenty of time to joke around and have fun. Their engaging personalities and vast knowledge of everything associated with coffee culture make it easy to understand why their videos have amassed more than 5 million YouTube views. They are coffee superstars.
When the video was shot we weren’t quite done calibrating the machine. It’s now completely dialed in and operational. The printer was by far the most challenging piece of the puzzle in case you were wondering. A few tears may have been shed. When we release our our own video you’ll be able to see it in action so check back soon. Until then you can sign up for our service at zipwhip.com. And don’t forget that we’ll be open sourcing all of our build plans for this machine in a future post if you’re feeling motivated.
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The above video is an unedited look at KOMO’s Molly Shen interviewing our own John Lauer.
Things might never be the same in the Zipwhip offices again. Our Textspresso machine has caught the attention of coffee drinkers everywhere. This past Monday we brought the first ever text-enabled espresso machine into our office. For the entire afternoon and evening the machine was pieced together. The following day it took some last minute programming and a touch of manual labor (that’s right, manual labor at a tech company) to get the machine operational and shined up for an afternoon visit from GeekWire’s John Cook.
Just before John arrived we got the machine grinding beans and pouring high octane java via text message. John ended up staying for several hours. His non-stop energy made him a lot of fun to be around. As the co-founder of GeekWire, thesource for tech news in the Seattle area, it’s very obvious he loves what he does. After a full demo of the Textspresso machine he took in a demonstration of our cloud-texting service. His article on our geeky creation went live on Thursday morning around 10:00 a.m. After that things got a little nutty.
By Friday morning the story was picking up steam. Our one-of-a-kind machine was featured on NBC’s bay area online affiliate and engadget. That’s when Seattle’s own KOMO News came calling. They interviewed John Lauer for a 2:30 KOMO News Radio 97.7 spot and featured the Textspresso coverage as a lead-in story for the evening news with Molly Shen. The video of that segment can be seen here. Since then #textspresso has gone global on twitter and we’re left scratching our heads as to what people are saying about our company from across the world.
We’ll have our own video featuring Textspresso early next week on this blog. We can’t wait to show you how gorgeous and unique this thing is. Until then we have a friendly reminder; We don’t sell Textspresso machines. We are a cloud texting company. That means you can text-message seamlessly across all of your devices from your main mobile number. If you have an Android powered phone, go to the Zipwhip homepage to download our free service today.
“I think this is the coolest invention in terms of geek culture and coffee culture colliding. It’s awesome.” – John Cook
