Google has launched a text message-based version of its email service targeted at users in Africa. So far, the service has been made available in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya.

2oceansVibe spoke to Google South Africa yesterday, and the service won’t unfortunately be hitting our shores anytime soon, but the latest in the line of Google products aimed at the African market sees the company continue to concentrate its efforts on educational programmes across the continent.

Gmail SMS can run on so-called “dumb phones”, which only have very basic features, and no access to the Internet.

Lack of access to affordable hardware and Internet access is still a critical barrier to technology adoption across the continent, but an increasing number of Africans are slowly but surely entering the science and technology landscape.

The service forms part of the search giant’s goal of increasing computer science training and it recently offered grants to 17 universities to expand the Computer Science for High School project.

Geva Rechav, Google’s product manager for emerging markets, explained in a blog post how Gmail SMS was adapted to work by using simple text commands:

Gmail SMS works on any phone, even the most basic ones which only support voice and SMS. Gmail SMS automatically forwards your emails as SMS text messages to your phone and you can respond by replying directly to the SMS.

You can control the emails received by replying with commands such as MORE, PAUSE and RESUME.

Additionally, compose a new email as an SMS and send to any email address recipient – who will find your message in the right email conversation thread!

It will be free to receive messages from the system, but any sent texts will be subject to standard network rates.

Follow Google’s African escapades on Twitter, and over on their blog, for more information about what they get up to.

Thanks, Lauren T!

[Source: Google]