Last night we rolled out an experimental new feature for the Backpack Calendar. If you have a Plus or higher account, you can now SMS events to your Backpack Calendar. If all goes well we expect to roll this out to other paying plans down the road.
How does it work?
Click the Calendar tab at the top of your Backpack account, and then look in the sidebar below your calendar list. You'll see an SMS icon with a link. It'll look something like this:
When you click the link, you'll see a screen that looks something like this:
This screen display your code (unique for everyone - don't use the one you see in this example screenshot) and a phone number. Text this code to the phone number using your mobile phone. This will registered your phone number with your Backpack calendar.
You'll then get a confirmation back on your phone saying everything is set up, or that there was a problem.
Adding events to your calendar
You can add events to your calendar via SMS using the same formatting as you use on the web. For example, SMSing "April 23 3pm Dentist" will add a "Dentist" event to your calendar at 3pm on April 23. Or "9am Client meeting" will add an "Client meeting" event to your calendar today at 9am. Or "1pm tomorrow Fedex the contract" will add a "Fedex the contract" event at 1pm tomorrow.
Seeing your schedule via SMS
Here's something else really useful: You can ask your calendar what your schedule looks like via SMS. If you just SMS "Tomorrow" Backpack will SMS tomorrow's schedule back to you. Or SMS "April 7" and you'll get back your schedule for April 7. It's that easy.
The whole thing in action
Here's a screenshot from the SMS app on the iPhone 1. showing the setup confirmation, 2. checking the schedule for tomorrow and April 7, and 3. adding a dentist appointment at 3pm on April 23rd.
So there you have it! Again, this is Plus and higher only at this point. If all goes well we'll roll it out to all paid accounts down the road. Thanks again for using Backpack.
