If you would like to use Taykt with your own applications, you'll be glad to know that we have a great API to help with that. If your own app has an existing customer base, you might need a way to link Taykt messages to their account in your application. Assuming you currently use the customer phone number, you might be wondering how to do that because Taykt doesn't make the phone number available for privacy reasons. The answer is to use the unique ID we assign to each phone number, and this tech note describes how to set that up.

Although you can't convert a unique ID into a phone number, your customers can. There are several ways for your customers to get this information to you. You could set up a word and web hook and ask them to SMS a confirmation message with a piece of common information, such as their username. Your web hook would be triggered when they text in and supply you the unique ID (as we always do for any web hooks) along with the username the customer texted in. From that point on, you know the unique ID associated to the account, and the unique ID is the same for the same phone number.

Another way would be to setup a word and web hook that echos the customer's Taykt unique ID to them in the response message. Your customer would then able to login to your website and update there details.

A simple example of the web hook to echo customers unique ID to them can be found on github. A running example of the service can be found on appengine. To try the service, text MYID to 82958. Messages cost 25p. To try the webhook from the command line: curl http://taykt-demo.appspot.com/echo -d pid="MyId"

@bradpollard spotted a great example of SMS being used to get information into the hands of anyone passing by:



If you're interested in yoga it's a great service, as you don't have to stop your journey: you can pick up the information as you're walking. If you're running a Yoga course this is powerful as you're contacting passing foot traffic that maybe wouldn't have normally taken that first step to thinking about your courses.

You can use Taykt to do this. Ok, you can't send a blank text to Taykt to get information, but you could send the word YOGA to 82958 (and its shorter in total than sending a blank text to an 11 digit mobile number :-)

Here's how you could set it up...

First, visit http://taykt.com and enter your word and message:



You're almost there: just give us an email address and password, so you can come back and change your message if you want to:



Congratulations, you've set up your word and message:



You can now say: "Text YOGA to 82958 to receive a copy of our current timetable. Text costs 25p".



Pop over to Taykt.com and give it a go. Or if you have ideas for using SMS, get in touch and we'll tell you how you can make them work with Taykt.

Taykt has been great for getting your message, more information, specific details to people straight away: they text your word in to 82958, we send back your message. But what if they have more to say to you? Well, now we've added the ability to have the full text message forwarded on to your email address.

What this means is you can now say "text HI to 82958 followed by your message" for example and you'll get the message forward to you. (If there's no message, you'll still get an email telling you a text was sent).

Here's some ideas of where you can use this:

• If you're running a live event, use Taykt to receive requests and comments via our short code, 82958.
• If you're a store that closes, why not set up a Taykt word and put it in your window to let people take your opening times with them, plus ask you questions.
• Use it as a way to start a conversation: ask for a name, postcode, contact details... whatever you need.

Turn email forwarding on at the Settings page at http://taykt.com. You'll find it on the left: just press the "turn forwarding on" button.

You can use Taykt to set up a nice automated Treasure Hunt (sometimes called a Scavenger Hunt). The idea is that teams are given clues and then have to go to particular locations and figure out the answer to get the next clue. That leads to another, and eventually to a goal.

By SMS the hunt is for words. If you were organising the competition, you'd give the teams the first word. Maybe it'd be "GO" and when they text GO to 82958 they'd get the first clue. Perhaps it'd be a cryptic clue that would lead the teams to a famous name on a plaque. So you'd set up the plaque name as a keyword too, and the message would be the next clue. The idea is each clue should lead to a word or number that the teams can text to 82958 to get the next clue. If you're cruel, you might even set up near-miss words with messages that taunt the teams if they text them in.

For the final text, set the message to be something that causes the teams to rush back to you. "Congratulations! You've solved all the puzzles. Now claim your prize: first team to find me back at base and show me this text is the winner. Run!"

As the organizer, you can sit back watching your Taykt.com dashboard, and the count incoming messages against each word will tell you how the treasure hunt is progressing.

We don't sell houses, but if we did, we'd use Taykt. First, we'd realize that people might take interest in a house for sale, and want a few more details, but maybe don't want to get into a conversation right now or get calls later if it turns out not to be the place for them. This is a great fit for Taykt because Taykt protects the house-hunter's identity, but allows the estate agent to gently introduce themselves.

So there's a place for sale. We'd create a word, and provide a few details. Maybe it's "Flat 4, Some Street", so we'd pick the word "FLAT4" which anyone walking by could text in. Then we'd enter the message you'd get back, something like: "Flat 4 is a 2 bedroom flat, modern kitchen, finished to a high quality with shared garden, ample parking Call RSK, 8am-8pm, to find out more 02088407677".

The word and the text number are what we need to include on the sign outside the property.



(Hopefully it's obvious that this image is photoshopped - we don't know RSK, and we're just using the image as a suggestion of what could be done.)

When someone texts FLAT4 to 82958, they'd get back our message. They don't have to remember to check the property out later, they don't have to remember who it was for sale through: they get that information in their hand immediately.

What we've done with our message is hand over the basics, and given that prospective buyer our contact details on their phone there and then. Maybe we'd include the price, maybe a link to the web site, perhaps a more personal message from a particular agent. But when that buyer is chatting about the property later, or maybe doing a bit of searching for more information, they have the starting point on their phone ready to go. And they can select your number and call.

As an estate agent, we get to gauge interest from the stats on the Taykt dashboard. And, importantly, we can change the message any time we want: "Sorry, Flat 4 is now under offer. Flat 7, in the next street, may be of interest: 2 bedrooms, view across the park. Call RSK, 8am-8pm, to find out more 02088407677".

Of course, we could get fancy with the API and let our developers plug into Taykt to create words for us when we enter new properties on our sales and letting systems, but that's a something for another day....

You can get started with Taykt.com now and give your customers instant access to information they can take away with them.

1. Create an account, if you don't already have one, providing your first option as your text-in word and the reply people will receive when voting for this option. We'll start with Ant.
   
   
   
2. Now, create your other poll option, Dec.
   
   
   


3. Advertise your poll
   
   


4. To check how your poll is going, simply log in and your dashboard will show how many votes the different options have received.
   
   
   
5. When the poll is complete you can update the reply message so people know the poll is closed.
   
   

We now send an email reminder on Friday mornings of words which are due to expire in the next 7 days and links to renew them for another month. Words receiving texts will automatically roll their expiry date for another month and so they will not appear in the email.

To unsubscribe from these mailing, there is a link at the bottom of the mail each week or you can log on to Taykt and disable the mailing on the settings tab.

Let us know what you think.