14 DAY TRIAL // WordPress.com has been adding a number of features for the more hardcore bloggers and the latest, SMS notifications, is certainly aimed at the same people. WordPress.com users in the US can now keep track of their blog, post new entries and even approve comments via SMS.
"Sometimes, you can’t always get to your computer, but you may really need to handle something important on your blog," Dan Roundhill, an Automattic engineer, writes.
"That’s when a new feature we’re launching today — WordPress.com Text Messaging — steps in to help. Through our shiny new 77377 (PRESS) shortcode, you can manage your blog using SMS messages. No computer? No problem," he announced.
Like many of the more niche features WordPress.com has been adding lately, you'll have to pay to get the most out of the feature. Still, the free version can come in handy as well.
For free, you can enable SMS notifications to receive a message whenever a user is added or removed from your blog, the theme or the privacy settings are changed.
If you pony up $20 per year though, you can get access to a number of features, arguably more useful. With the paid feature you get notifications whenever a post is published, useful for blogs with more than one writers.
You are also notified about comments and can even moderate them on the spot. You can also post a reply to any of the comments. On the same note, you can publish posts via SMS, though, they're probably not going to be very lengthy ones.
Finally, you get access to a very interesting feature, two-step authentication. Similar to the system Google unveiled for Apps recently, you can set up the authentication process to require a verification code sent to your phone. This way, a potential attacker can't access your blog's Dashboard even with your credentials.
"From your dashboard, click the 'Text Messaging' link under the 'Settings' tab to register your phone number with the service. After activating, you can select the Text Messaging features that you would like to use for your blog," Roundhill explained how to enable the feature.