Google’s effort to make the holidays easier on you continues. After enabling holiday hours in Google Maps and refreshing Google Shopping, Google now wants to send deals directly to your phone.
Google has rolled out a service that’ll send text messages to you that include deals from retailers. For example, you can search for something as broad as “Black Friday deals” or something more specific like “iPhone deals.” You can also manually sign up by texting “JOIN” to the following phone numbers:
Google says that it’s testing this SMS deal service, and right now it’s declined to name the advertisers that it’s partnered with on the offering. If you do enroll, though, Google says it’ll send deals across several categories, including computers, phones, and video game consoles. And if you do decide to enroll, Google says that your number will be kept private and that you can opt-out at any time.
Most plans that are available now come with unlimited texting, so having Google text deals to you could be a nice supplement to your usual deal sources. After all, your phone is probably always going to be with you, and you can have Google send you deal alerts without any effort on your part after you enroll. Some folks might not be totally comfortable with Google having their phone number and sending texts to their phone, but if this service sounds interesting to you, you can sign up now.
