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If you have any questions, feel free to contact us in any of the ways listed here. We're happy to help and always interested in hearing from our users.

The best source for help: our forums.
Or email us at: .
If you're still stuck, call us toll free at 800-696-1393.
For texting help, text HELP to 41411.

Help Topics

General FAQ
Using TextMarks
Creating & Managing TextMarks
TextMarks Pro Service
Mobilizing Web Apps (Advanced/Technical - for Developers)
Quick Reference
- SMS Commands and Abbreviations

General FAQ

Availability

Standard TextMarks are available on all major US carriers, including: Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, Virgin, Cricket, T-Mobile, Alltel, and more. Additional carriers coming soon...

Is TextMarks available outside the U.S.?

No. We are only available in the U.S.

How does TextMarks work?

TextMarks is a hosted mobile web services platform that facilitates communication and coordination by text message.
The TextMarks web site lets users quickly register a keyword (for free) on the 41411 shortcode that enables them to collect subscribers and broadcast alerts, chat in groups, coordinate events, provide info, and more.
TextMarks also provides a gateway between the SMS world and the Internet to empower content providers and developers to easily bring mobile functionality to their sites applications.
View our animated overview for some ideas of how TextMarks can help you.

Opt-out of the Program

If you subscribed to a TextMark but no longer wish to to receive messages you can easily unsubscribe as explained below:

If you have registered on our web site, click "My Profile" on the top right of the screen. You will then see a list of your subscriptions, if any. Simply click "UNSUBSCRIBE" next to the ones you no longer want.
If you have not registered on our web site before, simply click here to opt-out.
You can also opt-out with a text message. To do so send an SMS to 41411 with UNSUBSCRIBE followed by the name of the TextMark you no longer wish to receive.
To fully opt-out and stop receiving all messages from TextMarks, including messages from other TextMarks users, send an SMS with the word STOP to 41411.
If you would like us to remove all your personal information from our system, please send an email to with the word REMOVE ALL and your 10 digit mobile number in the subject line.

Standard text messaging charges apply.

Please check with your wireless carrier regarding the cost of sending and receiving text messages from your phone.

Is there a charge to use the service?

TextMarks' service is ad-supported. We do not charge for our standard service. We reserve the right to insert advertisements of up to 40 characters at the bottom of messages.

Do you send unsolicited text messages?

No. We might insert ads in regular messages, but we never send unsolicited messages.

Can I use the TextMarks service without ads in my messages

Yes. We have a Pro Service with no ads.

Can I select the ads that might appear in my messages?

No. But you can remove ads altogether with our Pro Service.

Edit Your Personal Information

Click My Profile to edit your user name, email address, password or time zone.
You can also see your subscriptions, scheduled deliveries and blocked users in your profile page.
You can't modify your phone number. If you get a new number, please reassign your keywords to your new number from the keywords' management page.

Help! I'm not getting any texts from 41411.

There are a number of reasons why you might not receive text messages from us. We're happy to help you out. Sometimes the cellular networks are just slow. If you've waited 10 minutes and still have not received anything, please do the following:

Text HELP to 41411.
Text HELP to 46645.
E-mail us (tmsupport at textmarks.com) and include:
- Your mobile phone#
- Your wireless carrier
- What happened as a result of texting HELP to those two numbers
- If you are able to send and receive text messages normally

Using TextMarks

Request a TextMark via SMS

Send a text message (SMS) to 41411.
In the body of the SMS, type the keyword associated with the TextMark that you want. TextMarks are not case sensitive.
TextMarks servers should respond back to you within a few seconds with a new text message (from 41411) with the information associated with that TextMark.
To request again the last TextMark that you requested, simply send an SMS with a single dot (".") in the body of the message
Any text (if present) in your original message after the keyword (or dot) is treated as a message for that TextMark. See below for more details on posting messaging.

Subscribe to a TextMark

You can subscribe to receive alerts from a given TextMark. These are messages that the manager of the TextMark, or other users, send to all subscribers. The manager might also automatically send an alert when the value of a TextMark is updated. You can subscribe and unsubscribe on the web, or by SMS.
To subscribe on the web, visit the TextMark's page (www.textmarks.com/KEYWORD) and click the Subscribe button.
To subscribe by SMS, send a text message to 41411 with the keyword "SUBSCRIBE" followed by the TextMark keyword (e.g. "subscribe myteamname").
If a TextMark is set to auto-subscribe mode, then simply requesting it by keyword will subscribe you. This is the easiest way to subscribe.
You may also unsubscribe at any time by web on the same page and by SMS by using the command "UNSUBSCRIBE" followed by the keyword.
If the manager of a TextMark enables it, subscribers can schedule a TextMark to be sent to them on a given day of the week and hour of the day, or on a specific date in the future.

Post a Message to a TextMark

Depending on how the TextMark is set up, you may post messages that go to all other subscribers of that TextMark, to only the owner of the TextMark, or sometimes not at all. The owner of the TextMark should let you know how to interact with it.
To post by SMS, send a text message to 41411 with the TextMark keyword you are posting to followed by a space and then your message, up to ~100 characters. (e.g. "myteam hi guys. gonna be 10 min late. start without me. cya!").
You can also send messages from the web page of a given TextMark (www.textmarks.com/KEYWORD).
As a shortcut, you may post a message to the last TextMark that you requested by texting a message to 41411 with a single dot (".") in place of the keyword, followed by a space and your message. (e.g. ". bad traffic. pls start without me!"). Using this quicker format, you will not even receive the contents of that TextMark as a response.
The manager of a TextMark may also send alerts to all subscribers. See the Broadcasting Alerts section for more info.

Communicating with other TextMarks Users

If a TextMark is set up properly, users can have a group chat by posting messages that are then broadcast to all other users subscribed to that TextMark. Simply send the message after the TextMark (e.g. "mybandkw hey all - practice is now at @ 11 tomorrow!"). See about posting section for more info.
You can reply directly to a single user by sending an SMS with the keyword REPLY, followed by their USER NAME, followed by your message.
To reply again to a user, you can replace their USER NAME with a single dot ("."). Text REPLY followed by "." followed by your message.

Blocking Users or TextMarks

If you don't want to receive further messages from a specific TextMarks user, send an SMS to 41411 with the keyword BLOCK followed by their USER NAME or phone number. (e.g. "block user287345")
If you are subscribed to a TextMark and no longer wish to receive alerts and updates from it, you may unsubscribe from it by sending a text to 41411 with the keyword UNSUBSCRIBE followed by the keyword. (e.g. "unsubscribe boringalerts").

Creating & Managing TextMarks

Create a TextMark

Create a TextMark to publish information, coordinate groups of people, add a mobile component to your web site, or just for fun.
Anybody can create a TextMark -- you don't even need to register!
Go to www.TextMarks.com and select the "Create" tab.
Select a Keyword that people will use to access your TextMark (the system will verify that it is unique). TextMark keywords are not case sensitive.
Decide whether you want to create a social TextMark for information sharing and chatting, or if you want a dynamic TextMark that interacts with a web application.
If you chose a social TextMark, you may enter up to 120 characters of text for a response. You can update this text as frequently as you want. A few other options are available and can be changed later too.
If you chose a dynamic TextMark, enter the URL you want to interact with and pull content from. By default the first 120 characters of text from that page will be sent. If you would like specific text from that page to be sent, enter the text right before the text you want send and/or the text right after the text that you want sent. To help you find the text you are interested in, you can click "Preview Entire Page". You can preview what the system would generate by clicking on "Preview". This is also where you would put the URL of any CGI script you might write to integrate TextMarks with your backend applications. See "Mobilizing Web Apps" below for advanced options (variables, etc.).
If you're creating a text alert, you'll be able to invite users to it later.
That's it! Now simply click the "Publish my TextMark" button. Your TextMark will go live right away.
To be able to edit your TextMark in the future and make sure that it doesn't expire, you must register. Enter your mobile number, a user name for your account and your email address. We take your privacy seriously and will only use this information in accordance with our Privacy Policy. You will receive an SMS with a four digit password that you must enter on the next screen to activate your account.

Configuring a TextMark that you Created

Go to www.TextMarks.com and login with your mobile number. Select the "Manage" tab.
You will see a list of the TextMarks that you have created and usage statistics. Click on any of the EDIT buttons to edit your TextMark.
From the TextMark Management Panel for each of your keywords, you may view more detailed stats, change the response and behavior of your TextMark, broadcast alerts, and more.
Open the "Response" panel to affect the primary behavior of your TextMark and what it does when a user texts your keyword to 41411. Here you can return plain text, clip text from a dynamic web site, integrate with a backend script on your server, etc.
In the "Configuration" panel's "Messaging Options" section, specify what happens when users post messages to your TextMark (such as by adding text after the keyword when in SMS messages to 41411). Do you want other users to see them? Do you want to see them? Etc.
In the "Configuration" panel's "Subscribable TextMark" section, you determine what type of messages your subscribers will get and how they can subscribe. This is where you can make your TextMark auto-subscribable.
In the "Configuration" panel's "TextMarks Permission" section, you can optionally choose to hide your TextMark from various places on the site and restrict or grant users additional powers.
In the "Configuration" panel's "Description" section, you can add your TextMark to our public directory which is search-engine accessible. Type in a good description here and provide an image if you like.
Make sure to click SAVE after you update your configuration.

How to Get Subscribers

Your TextMark is your focal point of mobile communication, and its subscribers are the community. This section explains how to get subscribers.
To enable users to subscribe to your TextMark (if they cannot already do so), you should activate the "Subscribable TextMark" option in the Configuration panel of your TextMarks' management page (via "Manage" tab). You should also set the subscription options so your TextMark operates as you desire.
If you made your TextMark auto-subscribable (option in Configuration panel), users can subscribe by simply texting your keyword to 41411.
If your TextMark isn't auto-subscribable but is still Subscribable, users can text your keyword to 41411 and then reply "Y" when prompted to subscribe. (This additional explanatory text is automatically appended to your TextMarks messages if there is room -- try it out now)
Users can text SUBSCRIBE YOURKEYWORD or SUB YOURKEYWORD to 41411 to explicitly request a subscription.
Users can subscribe from your TextMark's public page (e.g. http://www.textmarks.com/YOURKEYWORD).
Users can subscribe from your own site via one of our customizable Flash widgets.
From your website, app, or Flash widget using the Messaging.subscribe() API call (requires programming knowledge -- see our Dev center for sample code, etc.).
Most importantly, get the word out! If you are speaking to a group, mention the benefits of your TextMark and explain clearly to people how to subscribe.
When speaking to group of people, tell them to "Get out your phones right now" and "Send a text message to 41411 with the word MYKEYWORD to get on our text list" (if your TextMark is not auto-subscribable, alter these instructions accordingly). Mention what type of messages you'll send and how often. Repeat the instructions. This non-technical approach is actually the most effective way to get a large mobile subscriber base!

Broadcasting Alerts to Users

Once you've obtained some subscribers (see how to get subscribers), you may wish to broadcast text alerts to them. This section explains how.
You can send an alert from your TextMark's Management Panel (select the "Manage" tab and click EDIT next to one of your TextMarks). Open the "Send Alert" panel, type in a brief message, and click the button to send.
You can send an alert from your phone by sending a text message to 41411 with the keyword "ALERT" followed by your TextMark keyword, and then your message. E.g. alert sfwindsurf good news - wind up @ Crissy Field. Meet at 6pm!.
You may also have your TextMark alert users when you update its response. See updating your TextMark for more info.

Allowing Users to Group Chat

You may wish to use your TextMark for mobile group chat among your subscribers. This is great for coordinating groups (teams, bachelor parties, fraternities & sororities, families, etc.) where more than one person will be sending out messages.
Make sure you've enabled the options "Allow users to post messages" and "Any user can broadcast messages to all of your subscribers" in the Configuration panel of your TextMark Management page.
Users can post message by simply sending a text message to 41411 starting with your keyword, a space, and then their message. E.g. betalam my car broke down! anybody near 8th st gimme a ride to the party?
See the section Posting a Message for more info.

Updating your TextMark's Response

Update your TextMark's response at any time to keep the response valid and fresh.
From the web site, you can click the "Manage" tab, Edit a TextMark, and open the "TextMark Response" panel to update the response.
You can also update your TextMark response from your mobile phone by sending a text message to 41411 with the keyword "UPDATE" followed by your TextMark and then the new text for your TextMark. E.g. update yoga1234 Wkend classes: Bgnr: Sat 3pm, 4pm, Sun 3pm. Adv: Sat 5pm, Sun 5pm.
You can automatically send an alert to all subscribers when the content of your TextMark is updated. If this is appropriate for your keyword, check the box in "Subscribable TextMark" panel of the management page.
You can also "Allow anyone to update TextMark contents" (checkbox in Configuration panel) to create a communally updated TextMark.

Do keywords expire?

TextMarks managed by users with free accounts expire after 30 days on inactivity. This policy is in place to ensure that unused keywords are available for customers who want to use them. If you want to make sure your keywords don't expire, please keep them in use or sign up for our Pro Service. Pro keywords don't expire.

Does TextMarks offer Premium SMS features?

"Premium SMS" refers to text messages that bill users via their mobile phone bill.
TextMarks no longer supports Premium SMS features.
TextMarks does offer a Pro Service with no ads.

TextMarks Pro Service

What is the TextMarks Pro Service?

Our Pro Service is a paid version of our service that doesn't insert ads in the messages and makes all 160 characters in the messages available to our customers.

How much does the Pro Service cost?

Please see our Pro Service Plans page.

What are some other benefits to the Pro Service?

Some of our plans include reserved keywords and some include short keywords. If you want to use a reserved or short (three or four characters) keyword, please contact .
Pro keywords don't expire.
Alerts sent on Pro keywords don't have the keyword prepended to the message, giving you more space and more control over your branding.

Do you charge for outgoing messages or incoming messages?

We only charge for outgoing messages. However this assumes the number of incoming messages is equal or smaller than the number of outgoing messages (which is normally the case). If the number of incoming messages is greater, then we would charge based on incoming messages.

Do you charge for system messages, such as subscription confirmations?

No. We don't charge for system messages. And while these messages won't have ads either, they do include explanatory footers, e.g. how to opt-out.

Do you charge per message sent or per user?

Every message delivered to a user counts. For example, if you have 10 subscribers and you send one alert to all of them, that would count as 10 messages.

What are RESERVED keywords?

Reserved keywords are popular keywords that we have reserved for our Pro customers. If you type a keyword in the keyword creation page and you get a message stating that the keyword is reserved, please contact us so that we can assign it to you (pending availability).

Does the Pro Service work with your APIs?

Yes. The cost is the same and requires no additional setup.

How do I make my TextMarks ad-free?

See the "Pro Service" section on your TextMark's management page. (Click "Manage" tab, then select a keyword, then open the "Pro Service" section). You will need to first subscribe to the Pro Service, then use this section of the management page to toggle your keywords to be ad-free or not, and to observe usage and remaining credits.

How can I check my usage?

See the "Pro Service" section on your TextMark's management page. (Click "Manage" tab, then select a keyword, then open the "Pro Service" section). If you haven't subscribed to Pro Service yet and are wondering which plan would be right for you, you can check the "Usage Stats" panel on the same page to see how many messages your keyword has generated in the last 30 days.

How can I upgrade/downgrade my Pro Service subscription?

If you run out of message credits in the middle of the month, you should upgrade your plan so that your messages continue to be ad-free. The easiest way to upgrade or downgrade is to sign up for a new subscription and then cancel your old one. Your new billing cycle will be that of the new plan.

Can I cancel the Pro Service at any time?

Yes, you can cancel your subscription from your PayPal account. Once you cancel, you won't be charged any more. Service is pre-paid (monthly), and there are no partial month credits.

What happens to my keywords if I cancel my Pro Service?

Your keywords would become standard keywords and ads would be inserted. If you had reserved or short keywords, we reserve the right to replace them with alternative keywords.

Mobilizing Web Apps (Advanced/Technical - For Developers)

Developers Center

Please visit our new Developers Center for all developer resources.

TextMarks Interfaces Overview

Primary interfaces for mobilizing web applications with the TextMarks Mobile Application Services Platform (TMMASP) are: SMS request/response, widgets, and alerts API.
SMS request/response allows users to send text messages with your keyword(s) to 41411. TMMASP instantly makes an HTTP request to a URL you specify containing information from the request (including request text, user's phone number, etc.). Your servers process the request and respond with XML, HTML, or simply raw text. TMMASP then parses the response and optionally sends a text message back to the user with your data. This can be the "answer" the user wanted, the result of an operation requested by the user, or the next step in a menu navigation you define.
TextMarks widgets are available for you to easily embed (with just a line of HTML) on your web pages, blog, profile page, or even intranet applications. Users can subscribe to TextMarks, view current TextMarks contents, and more.
TextMarks Alerts API is an XML-RPC (XML over HTTP) interface for your applications to programatically broadcast text alerts to your TextMark subscribers. (Without the API, you can still broadcast alerts manually from the TextMarks web site or from your mobile phone). To request an API key, visit out Developers Center by clicking the "Developers" tab.

URL Variable Substitution

To link your TextMark to dynamic web data, you can include up to 9 variables in TextMarks that get their information from a URL.
Include \1, \2, ... \9 in the URL and these variables will be replaced by the words that follow the TextMark in the request, or use \0 to get all words following the TextMark.
\u is substituted with a numeric ID that will be unique and consistent for each user/phone.
\p is substituted with the requesting user's phone number.
To use these feature you should disable the message posting option in your TextMark via the management control panel (so extra words aren't treated as messages).
For example, try requesting the TextMark AMAZON followed by the ISBN number of a book. You will receive the price of that book on Amazon. The URL for that TextMark is: "http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/\1/".

Contextual Responses for Multiple Choice Menus & Voting

Allow users to quickly reply by SMS without having to type your keyword again.
Effectively automatically prepends your keyword to the short (one or two char) messages sent by users.
In conjunction with dynamic TextMarks, allows you to provide easy menus, polls, multiple choice questions, etc.
Details: After any TextMark request, alert, etc., that keyword remains as the user's active implicit context. Short responses (details below) are assumed to be in that context, and treated as if the user had typed your keyword first.
"Short responses" are defined as one character responses (a-t, A-T, 0-9), or two character responses (a-z, A-Z, 0-9). Examples: 1, 2, 14, 05, 99, a, t, f, CA, SF, J7... Note that single character responses u-z and U-Z are reserved by TextMarks.
Short responses can be used for global options (e.g. state/country codes), or can be used for infinite depth menu navigation by keeping sessions per user and using (e.g.) "\u" in URL to identify users/sessions.
For a demo of this functionality, try requesting the STATEINFO TextMark.

Quick Reference

SMS Commands and Abbreviations

Please remember that you need a blank space between commands and messages. Also, commands are not case sensitive...

COMMAND	ABBRV.	SYNTAX	EXAMPLE (text to 41411)	DESCRIPTION
HELP	?	HELP [TOPIC]	help alert	Get general help or help on a specific topic or command. Top level topic: CMD.
STOP		STOP	stop	Opt-out to stop receiving all further messages from TextMarks (unless explicitly requested in the future).
SUBSCRIBE	SUB	SUBSCRIBE TEXTMARK	sub dailyspecials	Subscribe to a TextMark's alerts and posted messages for delivery to your phone. Not needed for alert only TextMarks, for which the TextMark alone is a subscription request.
UNSUBSCRIBE	UNSUB	UNSUBSCRIBE TEXTMARK	unsub dailyspecials	Unsubscribe from a TextMark's alerts and posted messages.
FORWARD	FWD	FWD (USERNAME \| PHONE#) TEXTMARK	fwd joe dailyspecials	Forwards a TextMark to another user, by user name or by phone#.
REPLY	MSG	MSG (USERNAME \| PHONE#) MESSAGE	msg joe please save me a seat	Send a message to another user, by user name or by phone#. Send to "." to use last recipient.
ALERT		ALERT TEXTMARK MESSAGE	alert dailyspecials free beer tonight from 6pm to 8pm	Send alert to all alert subscribers of indicated TextMark. (Only for TextMark manager.)
UPDATE	UPD	UPDATE TEXTMARK CONTENT	upd dailyspecials pea soup, cob salad, cheesecake	Update a TextMark's response to the new text indicated. (Only for TextMark manager.)
BLOCK		BLOCK (USERNAME \| PHONE#)	block joe	Block a user from sending future messages or posts, by user name or by phone#.
UNBLOCK		UNBLOCK (USERNAME \| PHONE#)	unblock joe	Unblock a user from sending future messages or posts, by user name or by phone#.
DOT	.	. MESSAGE	. running 10 minutes late.	Repeat last TextMark request with optional new message or parameters. If posting a message, no TextMark response is sent back.
(POST)		TEXTMARK MESSAGE	dailyspecials bob, please save me the corner table	Post a message for manager and subscribers of a TextMark

Service available on the following wireless networks: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, Virgin, Cricket, Alltel.

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