There are times when you might want to set up reminders on your phone from your PC rather than from the phone itself. You might not have your phone handy, flat battery,  left it at home or work, etc. A number of web applications allow you to send free SMS reminders to your cell phone; some require registration and some don’t:

Remindr – No sign up required. A really simple interface which also offers reminders through twitter, jabber and email; currently, SMS reminders are disabled. If these come back, I’ll update this post. However, before SMS reminders were disabled, I wasn’t able to receive any in the UK; but perhaps it worked fine in other countries.

Task.fm – You have to register for this one. Also offers reminders through twitter and email. Task.fm uses natural language and can understand many different time and date formats.

and here’s the reminder settings dialogue box:

SpringPad – Have to sign up for this. You can add your local time zone in the Settings panel but I could not add my mobile phone profile as a new channel. I didn’t find the process intuitive enough, or perhaps SpringPad can’t deal with overseas telephone codes:

Remember the Milk – Register and set up your local time zone under Settings (General tab). Set up your cell phone under Settings (Reminders tab):

My UK provider O2 was listed but, as with SpringPad, I failed to get a reminder sent to the phone even though I seemed to follow the correct procedure.

Google Calendar – You’ll have to register if you don’t already have a Google account. You can tell Google Calendar how far in advance of your event that you want the SMS reminder. Look for the “Reminder” option on the right side of the Create Event form under the “Options” section. It’s just a simple select box. To set up where you want to receive reminders, you need to go to Settings and then click the Mobile Setup tab. Enter your phone details and you will be sent a verification code to your phone. Enter the code you are sent in the last box on that page and you are good to go.

Which free SMS reminder services work in the UK?

Of the five choices I could find to send free SMS reminders to my mobile phone, I found that only two would work to a mobile service in the UK – Task.fm and Google Calendar. Google Calendar allows reminders in advance of your event and also requires verification of your phone details. A nice idea as it prevents any possible abuse whereby someone might easily send unwanted ‘reminders’ to someone else’s phone. The other 4 services that I listed don’t require any verification that you are in fact the owner of the phone receiving the reminders. However, having said that, I really liked Task.fm. Again, this service allows reminders to be sent in advance of the event. I found it really quick to set up a reminder – even quicker than on the phone. The free account comes with unlimited email reminders and up to 15 SMS reminders per month, while the pro account at $3.99/month allows unlimited email and SMS reminders.

Have I missed any free reminder services here? Which service do you find works best in your country?