Sending SMS in foreign languages for example Arabic, Greek,
Hebrew etc.
Mobile phone penetration is increasing globally. With the
increase in handsets, being able to communicate with the handset
owners in their own language is something that is becoming
increasingly important.
The first question that comes to mind is how it works when
foreign languages are sent to mobiles from a web site. Based on
the fact that computers fundamentally just deal with numbers,
letters and characters are stored using a unique number for each
and in the past these unique numbers had to be assigned through
the use of encoding systems. As a result hundreds of different
encoding systems existed, none compatible with each other and
none of them containing enough characters to deal with all
languages. All this changed with the invention of Unicode. With
Unicode one number for each letter has been assigned (a standard
has been set) and it is network, platform and language
independent. The emergence of Unicode standards and tools
allowed web platform owners and developers to develop additional
tools which enables end users to send sms in their own language.
These applications are especially important in the Middle East
(Arabic), Far East (Chinese, Taiwanese, Hindi etc.) and European
countries where normal English characters cannot be used to
communicate in data format for example Greece, Finland, Norway -
just to name a few.
Prior to development of a user-friendly Java based application,
users had to be familiar with Hex and the conversion of Unicode
characters into Hex in order for the binary data to be sent to
recipients via mobile phones from web sites.
This now all changed for end users. The java based application
used for sending Unicode, available on www.smswarehouse.com,
allows users to send sms from the web site in the language their
keyboard is set to. Once logged in, users have the opportunity
to choose whether they want to send their text message in
Unicode or in English. After selecting Unicode, the user is
presented with the opportunity to send their message in Hex or
based on their keyboard settings (Keyboard input).
The process is extremely simple and user friendly - if your
keyboard is set (for example) to Greek, you simply type the
message in and click on "send" - the text will be delivered to
the recipient in Greek. Unicode is still limited to 70
Characters, which is a GSM restriction, but the use of 160
characters is currently under development.
Visit http://www.smswarehouse.com to register for a free test
account